Sonic: Resistance
by The Burning Writer
Summary: {FORCES REWRITE} Eggman has taken over 99.9% of the world, Sonic is missing and presumed dead. The only ones left to fight off Eggman is the Resistance lead by Knuckles, but can they actually defeat the doctor without the help of Sonic? Can they take down the mad Doctor's grand empire? Can the world truly be freed? Or will they be destroyed by the Doctor's dangerous weapon?
1. The Empire from a Lost Valley

**DISCLAIMER! I DO NOT HATE OR DISLIKE SONIC FORCES' ORIGINAL STORY, I SIMPLY WANT TO WRITE THIS TO EXPRESS A DIFFERENT VERSION OF THE SAME STORY, SOMETHINGS WILL STILL BE THE SAME, SOMETHINGS WON'T BE THE SAME, SOMETHINGS WILL BE ADDED, SOMETHINGS WON'T BE ADDED. THAT IS ALL, PLEASE R &R, AND ENJOY.**

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November 5th, 2016, 2:12 A.M. South Island, an unknown facility in Green Hill Zone.

* * *

It was early in the morning, and any sane person would be asleep, but Eggman isn't sane. He hasn't ever been sane so he could freely do things like this, he walked through the halls of his secret facility, and he was filled with a mixture of joy and excitement as he headed for a room called the "Stasis Room" he entered said room which was filled with tube after tube of blue liquid, the tube also had wires swirling around inside of them and they pulsated a green glow showing that the blue liquid was being exposed to Chaos Energy, he began to walk towards the end of the room "Sonic, how I hate him."

Orbot rolled his mechanical eyes as Eggman continued to walk through the room, Orbot knew that Eggman always took at least one to two hours out of his day to just sit around and complain about Sonic and the doctor's failures so the robotic assistant simply ignored his master while his clumsy counterpart, Cubot, scrubbed one of the tubes. Eggman reached the back of the room and stared at a monitor showing readings from his most prized creation since Metal Sonic "And all of that loathing has been focused into this invincible instrument of destruction."

As he finished he motioned to the tube that Cubot was whipping down, he then looked at his hand and began to clench it into a fist, he imagined his hand crushing Sonic's head "Every defeat, every humiliation at the Hedgehog's hands will be returned a thousandfold by my unstoppable creation!"

He then walked over to the tube and violently shoved Cubot out of the way. He stared into the tube and at the creature stored inside of it, but he was specifically staring at the gem stone attached to the creature's chest "This is my dream come true! With this invention I can expand the Eggman Empire across the globe and conquer the world!"

He then turned away from the tube and began to laugh maniacally. Orbot, who had been hiding behind a monitor to try and ignore Eggman peeked his head out from behind it and stared at Cubot, who had fallen on top of the monitor "The boss means business this time!"

Cubot nodded "Uh huh."

He probably would've said something else if the creature in the tube hadn't looked at Orbot and Cubot which effectively shut the both of them up immediately.

* * *

November 7th, 2016 4:35 P.M. South Island, Green Hill Zone.

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Sonic the Hedgehog sped through the lush hills of Green Hill, his feet pittered and pattered across the checkerboard stone path way that lead Sonic through the valley. He loved that sound, he loved the smell of the grass, he loved the heat that radiated around him, it was the perfect weather for running, and nostalgia also filled his soul due to the fact that him and his parents once lived in the Zone when he was younger, as he ran the communicator that Tails had made him a few weeks ago turned on "Sonic! Eggman's forces are surging into the city! We need you here, now!"

Sonic smiled with the promise of adventure and action "Hold one Tails! I'm on my way!"

He then boosted off at his top speeds heading for the city named Green Hill City, yeah sure it isn't the most original name in the world, but the concept of the town was pretty new, it's the only city on South Island that isn't protected by G.U.N. and it's apart of the smallest country Sonic's ever been to, the South Island Republic. Sonic reached a large gap in the ground and quickly jumped across it, as he flew through the air he saw that the ground below didn't have a bright blue river, instead there was nothing but sand "That's not good."

He then touched down on the other side of the large gap and continued on wards. As he ran a large group of Eggman robots came into view, the robots honestly looked like the Egg Pawns, except they were pure grey with red eyes and no mouth, Sonic grinned again "Heh, don't have time to loose. Better kick things up a notch!"

He then boosted into the new robots and destroyed them instantly, he continued running through the lush hills and eventually reached a steep upwards slope, he quickly jumped up into the air and he suddenly saw that instead of the beautiful rolling hills of the Zone, there was a massive desert, and sitting directly in front of him was a broken and destroyed loop, the grass that naturally grew on it had died and turned white, all the while the checkerboard stones of the loop was caked in sand so it too looked white, Sonic then homed in on the broken loop and jumped from chunk to chunk to get to the other side of the path.

As he jumped around a massive Sand Worm burst out of the desert. Sonic looked over to the worm in surprise "MAN! Look at the size of that thing!"

The former feeling of sadness and dread that had filled Sonic when he saw the massive desert was replaced with a spike of adrenaline as the Sand Worm burst out of the ground and burrowed back down into it, he then jumped off of the top of the loop before landing on the other side "Guess all kinds of of things show up when your former neighborhood turns into a desert."

He then returned to run and at the same time he sighed "Clean up's gonna be a chore."

Although that slight sadness was washed away by the green grass that he ran across, he wasn't sure how there was any green grass left on this side of the Zone but he wasn't complaining, he continued to run, boosting through any robots or obstacles that came in between him and his destination, Sonic then reached a drop and he quickly jumped down into the valley bellow, when he landed sand was kicked up into his face, he coughed and sneezed slightly before resuming his running, he took a quick look around his surroundings "There's sand everywhere!"

He quickly approached a tall cliff side and before he ram into it he quickly curled up into a Spin Ball and burrowed through the cliff.

When he burst out of the other side he shook some pebbles out of his quills "Green Hill's looking a lot more like Sand Hill right now."

He's never seen Sand Hill before, he had only heard about it from Tails and it sounded like a cool place. But he was quickly snapped out of his thoughts when he slipped and fell down a cliff and a sand slide, he spun around in the air and landed on the ground bellow in a crouched stance, he grinned slightly before blasting off still heading for the city, he was finally reaching the end of the Zone and the beginning of the city when he saw wreckage of robotics and machinery scattered all over the place "Man, this place is a wreck.. Thanks Eggman one of my favorite spots is all ruined."

But Sonic continued forwards, he ran across a broken wooden bridge that he could only reach because it was resting on various naturally forming rock pillars, and once he reached the end of the bridge he could see the tops of Green Hill City's roofs in the distance "This is it for Green Hill, so the city must be close."

He then began to rocket off at his top speed as a Sand Worm burst out of the ground and leaped over him "Let's get ready for some action!"

He then clenched his fists together and hit his top speeds instantly and in the process he broke the sound barrier which caused the Sand Worm to burrow away in fear.

* * *

4:37 P.M. South Island Republic, Green Hill City.

* * *

Tails was chased into an alley by four of Eggman's latest robots, but the robots actually weren't chasing him, that's just what he needed them to think. Once the four robots entered the alley and began to run over to Tails the young fox quickly spun around and caused a large gust of wind to crash into the robots, the wind sent them flying and when they crashed into a building several feet away Tails ran out of the alley and started to head towards a part of the city he had yet to check, he had to get the citizens of the city out of there before Sonic arrived, sure Sonic wouldn't hurt any of them, but he didn't really have the best track record when it came to keeping a battle contained.

Tails reached a square that would've normally been used for shopping or eating, but right now it was filled with robots who were threatening to attack a group of citizens, Tails reached the group and he stood in between them and the robots "You dumb bots are gonna have to go through me first before you lay a finger on any of the city's citizens!"

Suddenly the voice of Eggman called out "That's fine by me."

And the mad doctor floated down in his Egg Mobile. Tails glared at Eggman "You're not going to win this!"

The doctor chuckled "Ah, child like optimism, how I miss it."

He then shook his head "But no, I will win this.. Take a look around you! The city is decimated!"

Eggman was right. There was rubble and debris littered everywhere, people were fleeing in terror, and there was a fire around every turn, that coupled with the setting sun made it look as if the world had been plunged into an apocalypse, Tails shook his head breaking free from his thoughts "No! Sonic's going to save the day! We're all going to save the day!"

Eggman reclined in the Egg Mobile's seat "Very well... Take them out."

The robots then began to stomp forwards and Eggman sat there watching his excitement growing more and more. The robots got closer to Tails, who could've taken down the robots himself, but then he'd risk leaving the citizens behind him vulnerable, when suddenly a blue blur jumped off of the top of a roof and collided with the robot to Tails' left, the blur then zipped around quickly and effortlessly taking out every robot, it finally reached the last robot, the blur jumped up into the air and came crashing down on top of the bot's head, the blur stopped and Sonic stepped out of it "Is everyone okay?"

Tails nodded "We are, thanks to you.. Cutting it a little close though pal."

Sonic shrugged as the citizens behind Tails cheered for him "Yeah, that's pretty much how I roll."

He then turned to his side and faced Eggman, who was literally sitting on the edge of his seat "Okay, let's finish this Eggman!"

He pointed to the doctor a cocky and confident grin on his face. Eggman returned Sonic's point "It will be your finish Sonic. Behold the power of my ultimate masterpiece!"

Eggman then began to cackle evilly. Sonic jumped up to the doctor and attempted to take out his hover craft, when suddenly Sonic was knocked out of the air by something fast, he landed on the ground and skidded across it in a crouched stance, Tails meanwhile was pointing the citizens in the direction of safety when Sonic looked up to what had hit him and he saw that crouched down in a similar stance to Sonic was "Shadow?! It's you!?"

The black and red Hedgehog simply stood up right and silently folded his arms over his chest, suddenly a red monster landed next to Shadow, it was the hideous and spiky "Zavok!?"

The leader of the Deadly Six and one of the most powerful Zeti ever, Sonic then heard a sound he knew all to well and a blue robot fell from the sky and landed on Shadow's other side, it was none other then "Metal?!"

Eggman's most powerful and disobedient creations yet, the ground next to Metal Sonic began to crack and water spewed out of it, said water then began to form into a long thought defeated creature known as "Chaos?!"

Sonic was surprised to see all of these enemies all together at once, especially Shadow the never-turning-back-now-hog, Zavok the I-literally-took-over-your-army-Zeti, and Chaos the former God of Destruction turned peaceful. As Sonic stood upright a mysterious figure floated down from the sky, it was rather tall when compared to Sonic, it had black fur, a big bushy tail with a white tip, it wore unique and standout shoes and gloves, as well as a silver colored metal mask that's left eye lens was tinted red while the right was pitch black, it also had white dreadlocks coming out of the back of its head, and it was surrounded by a red aura.

When the figure landed on the ground Sonic quickly flicked his nose before charging towards the figure, now that it was out of the way he could... Wait, Sonic hadn't hit anything he quickly looked over his shoulder to see that the figure had stepped out of Sonic's way and it was flying up into the air, as that happened Tails silently said to himself "Whoa! This guy's faster then Sonic!"

The figure then held out his hand and a red energy shot fired out of the front of his hand at Sonic, the hedgehog dodged it by jumping up into the air and attempting to Homing Attack the figure but it glided out of his way and quickly spun around to kick Sonic up into the air, it then flew up and met Sonic higher up in the air before spinning around again to kick the Hedgehog yet again, except this time he was flung into the side of a building. As Sonic and the rubble of the building fell to the ground Tails realized something "No, wait! It's something else. Gotta scan him and figure this out."

He then pulled out his Miles Electric to try and scan the new figure, but before he could Chaos flung its arm at Tails and it stretched out at him, the arm then grabbed the pad and it retracted back to Chaos, the water monster then filed the pad with water while Eggman said "Now, now Tails. We don't want to spoil the fun of my little creation's mystery."

As that happened Sonic picked himself up off of the ground and the figure fired more energy shots at the hedgehog. At the same time Zavok ran towards him and the Hedgehog ducked under the incoming Zeti punch before quickly kicking the monster in its face, once Zavok fell to the ground Sonic attempted to jump into the air to attack the figure that has been harassing Sonic with energy shots, but the figure dodged Sonic's Homing Attack and Metal Sonic suddenly flew towards its organic counterpart, it was spinning its arms around to try and cut Sonic in any way but the Hedgehog was able to dodge the attack by quickly stomping down onto the ground.

Sonic then pushed himself up off of the ground and into the air in an attempt to attack the mysterious figure but sadly the figure dodged Sonic. The Hedgehog then landed on a roof and suddenly Chaos leaped up there to attack him, Sonic blocked Chaos's attack with his arms as he looked around in complete confusion and surprise "What are you?- How are you doing?-"

The figure then appeared behind Sonic and kicked him across the square, as that happened Eggman smiled "Nice."

And Sonic began to pick himself up off of the ground "Tails! I need to know what's going on with this guy!"

Tails looked around in confusion and a slight twinge of fear "I- I can't! Chaos ruined my pad!"

The figure then tried to kick Sonic but he was able to dodge that attack, the figure then quickly spun around in the air again and kicked Sonic into another wall, before Sonic and the rubble could even fall to the ground the figure zipped over to Sonic and kicked him up into the air, as he began to fall down to the ground the figure fired an energy shot at Sonic's back and that small blast boosted him up into the air, Shadow then jumped up and kicked Sonic which sent him higher up into the air, Zavok also jumped up into the air and slammed both his fists down onto Sonic which sent him spiraling down towards the ground, while he was being juggled around in the air Sonic was able to yell out "Running out of time here Tails!"

But right as he finished Chaos uppercut Sonic which sent him flying towards Metal Sonic who then hit Sonic towards the figure who then kicked Sonic into the ground, Sonic struggled to pick himself up off of the ground this time, his entire body already felt sore, he was out of breath, he could taste a slight twinge of blood in his mouth, he groaned as he attempted to pick himself up but he couldn't. Sonic collapsed onto the ground and he could faintly hear Tails yell out "SONIC!"

The last thing the Hedgehog saw before closing his eyes was the shoes of the figure that had just kicked his butt majorly. Tails was filled with anger and fear, he picked up a rock and chunk it at the figure, it moved its head slightly to dodge the attack it then stretched its hand out to blast tails with an energy shot when Eggman stopped it by saying "No, let him live.. He'll run back home to his friends and tell them about what we've accomplished here."

The figure the lowered its hand before Zavok stomped over to Tails, he then stood over the young fox and roared at him which finally caused Tails to be filled with fear. Without thinking it through he turn and ran from his friend, Eggman cackled loudly "Hohohohoh!.. Grab Sonic and let's get moving, we don't want to be here when the Egg Titans arrive."

The five others who had just bested Sonic began to fight with each other over who should scope up the motionless Hedgehog, Eggman groaned as he finally snapped at them "I don't care who grabs him! Just do it!"

The figure then reached its hand out and Sonic's body levitated up off of the ground Eggman sighed "Finally... Come now, the world needs its glorious leader to make a grand appearance!"

Eggman then led the other five out of the square in his Egg Mobile, at the same time massive robots that resembled the Death Egg Robot arrived in the city to finish off any major resistance from the South Island Republic's military.

* * *

 _ **With Sonic out of the way, Eggman's army was able to focus its entire efforts on destroying the renaming Republic soldiers. That effort was only assisted by G.U.N. when they decided to try and intervene in the battle, sadly the robots that made up G.U.N.'s front lines were mistaken for Eggman's own robots so the Republic attacked those as well as Eggman's army.**_

 _ **Without Shadow, Team Dark was ineffective against Eggman's army, E-123 Omega went missing in battle, and Rouge the Bat also disappeared, but, unlike Omega Rouge was presumed K.I.A. by both Republic and G.U.N. armies. Chaos was able to effectively destroy G.U.N.'s warships and submarines which crippled their marine soldiers, Zavok was able to go head to head with five battalions of Republic and G.U.N. soldiers as well as two tanks.**_

 _ **Metal Sonic was able to override the G.U.N. robots' A.I. and turn them against their fellow soldiers, Shadow operated in the darkness, he quickly and effectively took out any soldiers disconnected from their chain of command or that had wondered to far from the battlefield. And anyone that crossed paths with the figure that had almost single handedly taken out Sonic died or went missing.**_

 _ **Within seven hours of Sonic's defeat the citizens of the Republic were forced to take up arms just to defend themselves from Eggman's army. Meanwhile the Empire began to slowly attack more and more cities around the world which only forced G.U.N. to stretch themselves out thin even more, eleven hours after Sonic's defeat and the Empire was able to finally conquer the Republic and to also destroy the G.U.N. soldiers still stuck on South Island.**_

 _ **A week after that and the world fell apart, the United Federations collapsed and Eggman walked in to conquer the remains, Chun-Nun willingly handed themselves over to the Empire, and the rest of the world either fought back and failed, willingly joined the mad doctor's Empire, or they collapsed due to the chaos of the world's state and Eggman just scooped up the remains. Over the next year Eggman allowed the figure to commit genocide on various groups and cultures situated around the world, the largest of his genocides was on the native Chipmunks and Squirrels of South and West Side Island.**_

 _ **The world has fall, Eggman has won, the only hope left in the world is a ragtag group of guerrilla fighters called the "Resistance" lead by Knuckles the Echidna they work to try and take down the doctor's newly crafted Empire. Hope is beginning to slowly leave the rebel group, but, a new comer is about to be set on the path of joining the ranks of the Resistance, maybe they can bring hope back into the Resistance. Maybe, they'll be the tide that changes the current of war.**_


	2. A Crimson Fugitive

**I'D LIKE TO TAKE A MOMENT TO SAY THAT THE FIRST CHAPTER, THIS CHAPTER, AND THE NEXT TWO CHAPTERS HAVE BEEN (technically) PRE-WRITTEN SO THEY'LL BE COMING OUT PRETTY QUICKLY.**

 **ALSO TO SPIDERDOM321, THANKS FOR THAT SUPPORT, AND I'M GLAD YOU LIKE MY NAME.**

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October 2nd, 2017, a year after Sonic's defeat, 11:56 P.M. South Island, South Island Republic, the ruins of Green Hill City.

* * *

A lone red Wolf ran through the deserted and demolished streets of the city, the only things that illuminated his path were the still raging fires, and the light of the moon. The only things he had on were a pair of wore out orange sneakers, and white gloves covered in dirt and ash from the destruction that laid around him, and a pair of white glasses that's plastic frame was damaged from the continues war all around him, despite the fact that Eggman and his empire had already clearly won, a group of people going by the name the "Resistance" still fought to take down the doctor and his empire, sadly all of that fighting meant that the city still had yet to recover from the damage of Eggman's initial conquest. Eventually the Wolf reached an alley where a yellow Bird motioned for the Wolf to come over "Hey! Hey! Come on!"

The Bird's whispers almost weren't heard by the Wolf due to just how quite he was, the Wolf ran over to the Bird and he said "You sure you're ready for this?"

The Bird's feathers were mostly yellow but they also had red areas on him that made it seem as if he had a decal of fire on his front side that raised up from his legs and up to the tops of his beak, the Bird also wore red sneakers similar to the Wolf's, and the Bird also had gauze that wrapped around his hands and forearms. The Wolf nodded "Y- Yeah, I'm sure."

The Bird also nodded "Alright let's go."

The Bird then led the Wolf out of the alley and over to an empty road. Except sitting in the road there was a covered truck that had several other people sitting in the back of it, all of them had a similar look of stress and fear on their faces, the Bird then ran over to the driver side door "Okay that's all of them, let's get out of her."

The driver nodded as the Wolf climbed into the back of the truck right as he heard the engine turn on. It sent a sense of relief over everyone in the truck as it began to drive down the road and out of the city, the Wolf couldn't believe it, he was actually able to smuggle himself out of the city, he was able to escape Eggman and his forces, in fact, everyone in the truck was also just as surprised and relived as the Wolf, just then everyone heard the sound of one of the tires suddenly popping. The truck came to a stop and almost tipped over before the driver and the Bird got out of the front of the truck, they ran over to the right side of the truck and saw that the tire had mysteriously popped by itself, they even checked over to the same path that they had just driven down and saw that there wasn't anything there that could've popped the tire, just then the Wolf heard a strange noise and he struggled to look out over the sea of heads in front of him and over to the sound.

But the driver and the Bird could see where the sound had come from. They spun around quickly and saw that a masked Jackal floated down from the air, the Jackal hovered a foot or two over the ground "What have I found here? A group of spineless stragglers seeking to flee this city."

The Bird quickly opened up the driver side door and pulled out a blaster, he aimed it at the Jackal and fired at him, but the Jackal raised his hand up and blocked the shot with it "How amusing.."

Then the driver quickly pulled another blaster out of his pocket and also began to fire at the Jackal along side the Bird. But the Jackal just blocked the shots over and over again "There is no reason to resist. Your savior is no more."

One of the persons in the truck looked over to the rest of the passengers in the back with him "We have to help."

One of them nodded "Yeah, let's go."

Then suddenly several people began to open up small crates in the back of the truck and pulled out blasters. They then handed out the blasters to everyone in the truck, the Wolf included, before they all poured out of the back of the truck and began to fire at the Jackal, which surprised him slightly, but he quickly floated high up into the air before firing a laser at the truck's engine which caused it to explode and sent the fighters running around in a panic, the Wolf almost fell over as the truck exploded and dropped his blaster, the Jackal looked over the group of people scrambling around to both find cover and also try and shoot him at the same time. The Jackal shook his head in a fake sense of sadness "Like I already said before.. There is no reason to resist.. Your savior.. IS. NO. MORE!"

He the held out his hand and a laser blasted out of his palm. He mowed down a majority of the people trying to fight him and the Wolf watched in horror as people dropped dead all around him, he scrambled over to a chunk of still standing wall from a long since destroyed building, the Wolf hid behind the wall and dropped the blaster down on the ground next to him, he put his head in his hands and began to panic to himself as the Jackal blocked another energy shot before returning fire and killing the person that had fired it. The Jackal then destroyed the cover that the yellow Bird was hiding behind which forced him to run over to the same chunk of wall that the Wolf was hiding behind, as he ran over to the wall the Jackal held his hand out towards the Bird and blasted him with a laser, it pierced through his chest and the Bird fell to the ground motionless, the Wolf looked over to the dead Bird and then over the blaster sitting on the ground next to him, he's the only one left, he's going to have to defend himself, so the Wolf stood up slightly to pick up the blaster but it was just slightly out of his reach.

The Jackal looked over to the Wolf "I can taste your terror child."

When the Jackal suddenly addressed the Wolf it caused the red canine to look over to the floating Jackal in fear. The Wolf probed his hand around to try and grab onto the blaster that was just barely out of his reach, the Jackal stared down at the Wolf with his one red tinted eye "All that anxiety, and doubt..."

The Wolf finally picked up the blaster and aimed it at the Jackal, he struggled to hold the blaster up due to his just how much his hand was shaking out of fear so the Wolf raised his other hand up to stabilize the hand holding onto the blaster's handle, the Wolf hesitantly put his finger on the trigger and he closed his eyes not wanting to be in this situation anymore, the Jackal chuckled "It's delicious."

He then held his hand out again and fired an energy shot at the ground in front of the Wolf. When the energy shot hit the ground there was a small explosion which was just large enough to scare the Wolf and cause him to stumble backwards and fall down onto his bottom dropping the blaster at the same time, the Jackal then lowered his hand "Give into your fear. Flee, screaming, and I'll let you live."

While the Jackal talked the Wolf looked over to the blaster sitting a few inches away from him contemplating the option of attacking the Jackal, but he couldn't, instead the Wolf stood up and bolted away from the Jackal, he ran back into the city as the Jackal began to laugh sadistically while he watched the Wolf run away in terror.

* * *

November 3rd, 12:22 P.M. Ruins of Green Hill City

* * *

Vector the Crocodile ran through the streets of the city, Buzz Bombers flew over head and fired at him as the Crocodile ran. Vector was barely able to avoid some of the Bombers' fire due to his large size, he quickly ducked down and picked up a large rock, he spun around and threw the rock at the closest Bomber, once the rock smash into the Bomber's head it exploded which allowed Vector to get ahead of the other seven Bombers that were still chasing him, Vector hated going out on solo missions for the Resistance, each time he did he'd somehow draw attention to himself and he'd have to run back to the headquarters while also trying to not be killed by Eggman's mechanized army.

Vector's eyes quickly darted around as he tried to find some way to quickly finish off all of the Bombers at once, luckily he saw a dead end alley narrow enough that the Bombers would have to get into one straight line, Vector quickly turned and ran towards the alley, the Bombers followed, once Vector reached the end of the alley he quickly glanced over his shoulder and saw that the Bombers were all in one narrow line, he then jumped up onto the wall in front of him and kicked off of it heading straight towards the lead Bomber.

He grabbed onto the Bomber with his left hand and with his right hand he grabbed onto the Bomber behind it. Vector then used the two flying robots to launch himself higher up into the air, with the two robots still in hand, once Vector was high up he smashed the two bots together before falling down towards the rest of the Bombers who hadn't a clue what was going on, Vector bit down on the new lead Bomber and it exploded, but before it did explode Vector was able to swing off of it and he flew towards the reaming four Bombers, Vector then body slammed the last Bombers onto the ground and the victorious Vector stood up off of the ground brush the soot off of his chest from the explosion. As Vector began to make his way out of the alley he heard the sound of someone yelling out "Help! Someone! Please!"

It came from somewhere over to Vector's left, but before he could investigate it three redesigned Egg Pawns ran past the alley Vector was in, said Egg Pawns had spherical white-gray bodies with no heads, thin black limbs with red joints, and light gray visors on the front with two red eyes. They also had light gray feet with soles, and armored light gray forearms with no hands, although they had a cannon on their right arm. Vector watched as they turned a corner and ran towards the person that had just yelled for help. Vector quickly clenched his fists before running off towards the person as well, and once he turned the same corner the Egg Pawns had just turned he saw that there were at least ten of them surrounding a red Wolf, Vector took a good attacking stance "Hey! Egg ro-butts!"

Three of the closest Egg Pawns turned their heads and stared at Vector before they turned around and began to stomp towards him, the Crocodile grinned slightly before charging towards the robots. He stretched his arms out and slammed into the three that had just attempted to stomp towards him, he body slammed those robots into the ground before quickly jumping up off of the ground and turning around to face the rest of the robots, Vector looked over his shoulder to the scared Wolf "Hey kid, you know how to get to downtown?"

The Wolf nodded his head "Good, run over there and once you reach that old book store.. You'll know what to do."

The Wolf nodded before getting up off of the ground and running away from both Vector and the robots, Vector then looked back over to the Egg Pawns "So.. Who wants to get a beating first?"

Vector then charged at the robots as they began to fire their arm cannons at him, sadly Vector would soon be overrun because more and more Egg Pawns as well as Buzz Bombers showed up to assist their fellow robots fight off Vector.

* * *

12:27 P.M. Downtown Green Hill City Ruins.

* * *

The red Wolf silently made his way through the streets of the burning city, narrowly avoiding enemies at every turn. When he finally made it to the book store Vector had told him about, he went to open the book store's front doors but they wouldn't budge, the Wolf began to panic as he tried to find someplace to hide or some way to get in, he was out in the open, Eggman's robots would be able to find him, that Jackal, he could just as easily find the Wolf if he were out in the open, he had to hide. Just then he heard a rapid beeping sound come from the alley over to the left of the building, the Wolf walked over to the alley and looked in it to see that there was an old damaged lamp sitting in the corner of the alley, and that lamp was the one giving off that beeping sound, the Wolf walked over to the lamp carefully and once he reached the lamp he saw that there was a small red light flashing in tune with the beeping, the Wolf took the lamp's shade off and saw that it had a metal light bulb shaped device screwed into it where a real light bulb should've been, and the metal device had red lines all over it that glowed in tune with the beeping, the Wolf then saw that there was a button on the metal bulb that had a red glowing outline surrounding it, he then pressed the button and the bulb suddenly opened up.

Sitting inside of the bulb there was a strange looking key, the Wolf then hesitantly took the key out of the bulb before looking around the alley slightly confused. Just then a brick in the nearby building began to slide out of the wall it was in, once it was just barely hanging out of the wall the brick split open and revealed a key hole in it, the Wolf looked at the key in his hand and then at the brick's key hole, he then slide the key into the key hole and twisted the strange key, with a click the brick slid back into place and the open metal bulb then began to emit a deep metal hum that caused the key to slide out of the brick's key hole and back into the metal light bulb, once that strange series of events was done the section of wall next to where the brick/key hole began to change from a brick wall, and into a metal door, said door then slide open and the Wolf, not really knowing what else to do, walked through the open door.

The Wolf was startled slightly by the sound of the door sliding closed again and changing back into a regular looking brick wall, the actual inside of the building looked like an old office building, there were cubicles and desks everywhere, although those desks and cubicles were either damaged or destroyed from the war, but what caught the Wolf's eyes was that there was a freight elevator over on the wall to the Wolf's right, that had opened up when the door behind him had closed. The Wolf glanced around and saw that there was nowhere else to go but into that elevator. So he walked over to it and got in, the doors closed by themselves and the elevator lowered automatically, the Wolf had no clue where he was being taken, he didn't even really know who that Crocodile was other then the the fact he was named Vector, after a few almost silent minutes the elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open.

The Wolf silently walked out of the freight elevator and into a hallway that had stone floors and brick walls and roof, the hallway stretched three feet or so to the Wolf's right and at the far end of the hall there was a door that was open slightly, he could hear the faint sounds of people talking in the room that the open led to, the Wolf then began to silently walk down the hallway and towards the door, as he got closer to the door the voices coming from it got louder and the Wolf could hear a female say "Vector's been gone for too long.. We should send someone out to find him."

Then he could hear a male voice say "No, Vector's fine.. Trust me if he where in actual danger he'd have already contacted us."

The Wolf finally reached the door, but he didn't walk through it, instead he stopped next to the door and continued to listen to the voices. A different male voice that sounded like a child's voice then said "Espio's right! Besides, even if we needed to go help Vector, we kinda cant right now. Me and Espio aren't ready to head back out into the fight, and it's not safe for you to go out there alone Amy."

The Wolf was surprised to hear all of those names, was he- was he in the Resistance headquarters? The Wolf was about to peek around the corner of the door when someone suddenly put their hand on the Wolf's shoulder "Hey, what ya' doing?"

The Wolf almost jumped across the hall and to the other side of the door, but he didn't so instead he looked over his shoulder and at the person who had put their hand on the Wolf's shoulder. It was a white female Dog that had heterochromia eyes, the right eye was purple, and the left one was green, she also had a pair of googles placed on her head, a purple bandana with a large sharp toothed grin drawn on it wrapped around her neck, a light pink shirt that had three different colored stars on it, purple fingerless gloves, a black and pink checkered skirt, light pink pants, and purple boots that had black laces in it, the Dog also had three long bangs on her forehead that had its tips dyed the same color of purple as her gloves, bandana, skirt, and boots, the Dog took her hand off of the Wolf's shoulder "You gonna answer me?"

The Wolf's eyes darted around in confusion and slight fear before saying "Uh... I- I'm... Listening."

The Dog nodded "Alright... What's your name?"

The Wolf glanced over his shoulder quickly before saying "Maybe we should.. Go somewhere... Else?"

The Dog shrugged "Sure."

Before leading the Wolf over to a nearby door. She opened the door and led the Wolf into a room that had two bunk beds sitting in the two front corners of the room, there was also several military crates placed in the room. The Dog turned around and put her hands on her hips "So, that name of yours?"

The Wolf sat down on a nearby crate before saying "Uh.. My name is Dustin."

The Dog grinned slightly "Cool, my name's Matty."

Dustin also grinned slightly, it felt nice to talk to someone other than his reflection, he felt like he could relax, he felt as if he could actually let his guard down, which he was immediately punished for when a distorted voice suddenly said to him "What are you doing in here?"

The Wolf jumped up off of the crate and spun around in the air. The person where the voice had come from was a muscular female bear that wore black colored full body armor, there was also a black gas mask looking device placed on her maw, a pair of googles that had orange lenses in them were placed over her eyes, and a black army helmet sat on her head, the muscular bear crossed her arms over her chest still waiting for Dustin to answer "Uh.. I- I uh.. I don't actually know what I'm doing in here."

The bear then took of her googles and lower mask like piece off of her face which revealed that the bear had bright blue eyes "Then how'd you get in here?"

Matty suddenly spoke up "I let him in!"

The bear looked over to Matty "You let him into the base?!"

Matty shook her head "No. I let him into the living quarters, I found him in the base."

The bear shook her head before looking over to Dustin "Listen I don't know why you're here, or what you want but you gotta leave."

Dustin backed away from the bear "No I can't! I- I can't leave the city! I- I don't have anywhere to go! I- I can't hide! I- I-"

Suddenly the voice of Vector came from behind the bear "Hey kid! Come with me." Dustin then walked past the bear and followed Vector towards the door where those voices came from.


	3. A Hero from Beyond

12:33 P.M. Underneath the ruins of Green Hill City, Resistance Base.

* * *

Vector suddenly stopped next to the door he was taking Dustin to. He then looked over his shoulder to the red Wolf "Uh.. W- Wait here."

The Wolf nodded before Vector walked into the room where those voices had come from, everyone looked over to Vector as the door slid open, the Crocodile had cuts and bruises all over his body from the battles he'd taken part in, he shook his head and closed his eyes as he walked "Eggman's army is unstoppable!"

He then opened them and looked at his fellow Resistance fighters, there was a pink Hedgehog named Amy Rose that wore a short sleeveless red dress with white trims, tall red boots with a white cuff and stripe, white socks, a red hairband and white wrist-length gloves with gold cuffs, there was a purple Chameleon Named Espio that wore dark purple and black shoes with elaborate cuffs, white gloves with a purple back, and studded bands around his wrists and ankles, a young Bee named Charmy that wore an orange vest with a bee emblem on the left, white and orange shoes, white gloves cuffed with black rings, a black pilot's helmet with a red rim and flight googles.

"Without Sonic, the people are losing hope and giving into despair."

Espio sighed "Despair is a luxury we don't have."

Amy put her hand on top of her chest in sadness as she said "I still dream that Sonic is with us."

She took her hand off of her chest as tears began to swell up in her eyes "Do you think that he might be-"

Vector sighed "I'm an optimist.. But I'm also a realist. Sonic is gone Amy, and Tails... He- He's still coping with the reality of things."

He sighed again this time trying to get rid of his own tears "If we're going to win we have to do it without them."

Espio nodded "Vector's right."

He then put his hands on the table sitting in front of him "We've been hoping for a miracle since this all started, but I'm afraid we have to make our own miracle."

Amy nodded "Eggman's army has everyone terrified. If we want the people to rally, we have to show them that strength doesn't just come from numbers."

Charmy suddenly spoke up "Not everyone is terrified. Vector, didn't you say a new recruit was joining us today?"

Espio then added "Yes, a survivor from the city, right?"

Vector nodded as Amy opened up a computer sitting on the table "Yeah, kid's a red Wolf.. Wares orange sneakers, white gloves, and some shabby white glasses."

Amy nodded as she typed Dustin's description into the computer "I'm accessing his file right now."

As Amy brought up Dustin's file the other Resistance members walked over to her and all stared at the computer monitor. Amy then began to read aloud what was on the monitor "According to what remains of G.U.N.'s database this new recruit's name is Dustin Filbert Wolf, his father was a banker, and his mother was a florist... Oh, and Dustin also was an A+ gymnast in school before all of this.. Happened."

Amy then closed the computer before looking over to Vector, a grin on her face, and saying "Seems like you've made a good choice Vector, with his gymnastic skills it's gonna be hard for Eggman to get a hold of him."

Vector sighed slightly "We'll see about that."

when suddenly a door in the room slid open and the Resistance's leader, Knuckles the Echidna, came walking through it. Espio looked over to Knuckles "What's the sitrep Commander?"

Knuckles grinned slightly as he walked over to his soldiers "Happy to see you're still alive Vector."

He then quickly shed his grin and grew a serious and authoritative look on his face "Eggman's forces have chewed through our defenses at Green Hill, and the other Resistance fighters in the city are reporting that whatever it is that killed Sonic-"

Knuckles closed his eyes and clenched his fists as everyone lowered their heads in both respect to their fallen comrade, and sadness over losing a friend, Knuckles then opened his eyes "Sorry, I'm still not used to saying that."

He then turned around to face the large wall mounted monitor sitting on the wall behind him "Whatever it is has got them running in fear."

Vector then suddenly cut in "All except for this brave kid."

He then walked over to the door Dustin was standing behind and opened it which allowed the Wolf to walk into the room and over to Knuckles along side Vector. Vector continued "From what I can tell he survived an encounter with that _thing_ and he was able to make it here in one piece, of course after I pointed him in the right direction.. Knuckles, meet our newest recruit."

Dustin then held his hand out to shake Knuckles' hand but the Echidna instead walked over to the Wolf and gave him a hardy pat on the back which caused Dustin to lurch forward due to Knuckles' own raw strength. Charmy flew over to Dustin eyeing him as he did "Hmm, doesn't look like much."

Knuckles shook his head slightly "Neither do you Charmy, but I still manage to find a use for your pointy butt!"

Charmy rolled his eyes and scratched the side of his head as he silently giggled to himself, Knuckles then lead Dustin over to a wooden crate in the corner of the room and once they reached it Knuckles said "Here kid, take this. We're depending on you."

He then pulled out a device that had fireball-shaped cap piece that was held together by several black nozzles that were attached to a white barrel, it had three holes on its front, and a black handle on the back, Dustin wasn't quite sure what he'd just been handed but he wasn't able to ask Knuckles what it was because right as Dustin's hands touched the device Knuckles said "Okay, let's get going everybody! The world's not gonna save itself!"

Then everyone except for Amy and Dustin left the room. The red Wolf was about to leave the room when Amy suddenly ran over to him "Wait! Before you leave I gotta get you properly equipped."

Dustin nodded "Okay."

And Amy led him over to a stack of several wooden crates that were sitting in the back of the room. She opened one up "How do you feel about full body suits?"

Dustin put the red device down on the table next to that computer "Uh.. I don't like them?"

Amy nodded as she began to riffle through the crate "Do you like boots?"

Dustin shrugged "They're fine.. I guess."

Amy nodded again "And are you attached to your current clothes in any way?"

Dustin shook his head "No I'm not."

Amy then suddenly pulled some boots and gloves out of the crate. She spun around and showed them to Dustin, the gloves were colored marine green on top while the bottom side of the gloves were colored white, the gloves also had black chevron designs on the spot where the back of the hand would be, as for the boots they had a similar color patter to the gloves, marine green front, white back, but what made them different from the gloves was that the boots had black shoe tips, and the chevron designs were placed ruffly on the middle of the front of the boots.

Amy then handed the gloves to Dustin and put the boots down on the ground next to him. While Dustin slipped into his new clothes Amy went back to riffling through the crate "You're gonna also need some way to store equipment out in the field.. What do you think about the color beige?"

Dustin took off his right shoe "Uh... It's fine I guess."

Amy nodded "You're also gonna need a new pair of glasses."

She then pulled out a beige combat belt with an attached strap that would be wrapped around the wearer's chest, and black rimmed glasses, she then turned around and looked at Dustin in his new gear "Wow, you already look like a top notch soldier."

She then handed him the combat belt and the glasses, once he had those on Amy then handed him a marine green colored ear piece. Once Dustin put that on Amy walked over to the computer "Just gotta add your recruit file to the system... Are you okay with the nickname Rookie?" Dustin furrowed his brow slightly "Is that necessary?"

Amy nodded "It is.. We do it so that your true identity is kept hidden from Eggman."

Dustin nodded as he un-furrowed his brow "Oh, alright. Yeah I'm fine with it."

Amy smiled and said "Good."

As she finished up Rookie's Resistance profile. Rookie then picked up that red device and left the room. Once he left the room Matty suddenly jumped in front of him "So! What's your new nickname?!"

Rookie was shocked by Matty suddenly popped up in front of him so he backed away from her slightly "Uh.. It's- It's Rookie."

Matty smiled widely "COOL! Mines Spark!"

Rookie raised an eyebrow out of curiosity "Why's that?"

Matty then suddenly pulled out some kind of yellow looking device and suddenly a yellow colored electric whip came out of it "That's why!"

Rookie jumped away from Matty when that electric whip was ignited "What is that!?"

Matty turned off that electric whip and attached the device that it had come out of to her skirt's belt "That's called an Electric Wispon.. And what you've got there is called a Burst Wispon."

Rookie looked at the device in his hands "How do I use it?"

Matty then wrapped her arm around Rookie's back and began to lead him down the hall "Don't worry you'll be taught that in training.. Which is being led by Newt."

Rookie looked over to Matty "Who's Newt?"

Matty face-palmed herself "Oh yeah! I never did tell you her name! You remember that bear with that voice changing mouth piece?

Rookie nodded "Yeah her name's Newt."

Rookie again nodded "Oh, alright.. And her nick name is?"

Rookie was expecting Matty to answer but instead Newt was the one who suddenly did "Mine's Pi."

Rookie's ears perked up in shock as Newt suddenly stepped out from a doorway "The reason for that is because I was given the Cube Wispon.. Don't worry I don't really understand it either."

She then held out a blue hammer with a black handle before strapping it back onto the black belt that Rookie hadn't noticed yet "Now come on, training's about to start."

Matty patted Rookie on the back before he followed Newt back into the room she had just come from.

* * *

 _Super Sonic blasted off towards the former leader of the Hard Boiled Heavies now known as the Phantom King. As the yellow glowing Hedgehog sped towards the flying robotic monarch it used the purple gemstone placed atop its metal crown to create several orbs of strange energy before firing them at Super Sonic, who dodged everyone of them, and with a sudden sonic boom Super Sonic blasted straight through the robot and it exploded. The explosion sent the gemstone flying up into the air and Super Sonic went to grab it when suddenly Eggman grabbed the stone using his Klepto Mobile which was a mech suit made out of a damaged Egg Mobile, and two large barrel like red robotic arms. Eggman cackled over the sound of the rushing wind "You lose Sonic!"_

 _The yellow glowing Hedgehog grinned cockily "That's what you think Ro-Butt-Nik."_

 _The doctor grumbled at the Hedgehog before swinging one of the Klepto Mobile's large red arms at Sonic._ _Super Sonic ducked underneath the incoming arm before blasting off towards the Mobile. The flying craft quickly flew up just enough for Super Sonic to miss his attack, the Hedgehog quickly turned around in the air and blasted off back towards the craft only to be met by another swing from one of the red arms, this time Super Sonic was actually hit by it and he was slammed into the ground underneath him, Super Sonic groaned as he stood up "That wasn't half bad Egghead."_

 _He then suddenly blasted up off of the ground and slammed into the Klepto Mobile. The flying craft began to fall apart and Eggman along with his damaged Egg Mobile fell down onto the_ _ground dropping the gemstone in the process, Super Sonic landed on the ground next to the gemstone and picked it up, the gem then began to vibrate as it began to emit several repetitive humming sounds, Super Sonic's entire body began to tingle before he was suddenly take out of his super form._

 _The gemstone and the Chaos Emeralds flew high up into the air and Sonic was taken up with them. The Chaos Emeralds then began to spin around the purple gemstone before a crimson purple portal opened up and Sonic along with the gemstone were sucked into it._

* * *

12:45 P.M. Green Hill City.

* * *

Tails pulled a screwdriver out of his toolbox and began to fiddle around with some of E-123 Omega's insides "Come on, come on!"

Sadly no matter what Tails did Omega would never turn back on. The fox sighed as he took his screwdriver out of Omega and put it back inside of the toolbox "Sorry buddy, I don't have the proper tools to fix you.. But I promise that once I have them I'll come back and fix you right up."

He then picked up his toolbox and turned around to see a manhole cover be blasted up into the air by a strong jet of water, that jet of water then transformed into Chaos 0 who glared at Tails "Oh no.. Chaos **0** I'm doomed... Seriously? Eggman thinks that you can take me down, I defeated Chaos 4 with-"

Suddenly Chaos lunged at Tails with speeds its never been able to achieve before. Tails was shocked to see Chaos move at those speeds and that caused him to drop his guard which allowed Chaos to body slam Tails and take him down to the ground, Tails was then engulfed by Chaos who turned into a ball of water, the fox kicked his legs to try and swim up to the surface of the water bubble Chaos, but that only caused him to be sent spinning around inside of the living bubble of water, he couldn't hold his breath for much longer, that's when a screwdriver floated past Tails' face, Chaos had engulfed the toolbox too, Tails grabbed the screwdriver and used it to poke a hole through Chaos.

The water bubble popped and Tails slid across the ground along with the water that rushed out of Chaos. Tails groaned as he stood up off of the ground only for Chaos to suddenly reform and pick Tails up, the water monster then turned Tails around in its hand so that the fox was facing Chaos instead of away from him, Chaos slammed Tails' back against a wall which caused the fox to yelp out in pain, Chaos suddenly made water rush up Tails' body and into his nose and mouth, it was drowning him, and due to the force of Chaos's rushing water Tails couldn't fight back, he couldn't move, there was a sudden break in Chaos's rushing water which allowed Tails to yell out "Help! Someone!"

But then Chaos filled Tails' throat and mouth with water again. He was beginning to black out from a lack of oxygen, everything was spinning, he could already hardly hear over the sound of Chaos's rushing water, but he was able to hear something strange, it was the sound of sparks and electric crackling, that was the last thing he heard until he blacked out and something fast and blue crashed through Chaos. Tails slid down the wall and onto the floor, and began to regain consciousness while he coughed out all of the water that had been forced into his lungs. Chaos reformed its torso and looked over to its left only to be met by a something crashing into its head, the water monster roared out in pain as something repeatedly crashed through its body over and over again, whatever was doing this to him it was so fast that Chaos couldn't fight back, but that didn't stop it from trying, it swung its right arm and tried to attack whatever was constantly crashing through him, and that was the last thing it did before whatever was attacking him crashed through Chaos's head again and the water monster fell to the ground and turned into a motionless puddle of water.

Tails groggily opened his eyes, his fur was still damp so the wind that rolled over his body felt cold to him, Chaos was gone, but whatever had saved him from the monster was still there, Tails looked over to the red shoes of his savior "..Sonic?"

Whoever saved him said "Yeah?"

Tails quickly got up off of the ground and saw standing in front of him was a small and younger version of Sonic "Wh- What?"

The younger Sonic cocked his head to the side "What's wrong?.. Like.. Why are you taller then me all of a sudden?"

Tails held his hand out and tried to poke the younger Sonic's head "Are you... Real?"

The younger Sonic grabbed onto Tails' finger before he was able to poke the Hedgehog's head "Yes I am real, now, tell me what experiment went wrong to make you grow up so fast."

The younger Sonic let go of Tails' finger and the Fox brought it up to his chin as he began to try and figure things out "This doesn't make sense.. The Time Stream should've fixed itself after the Time Eater Event."

The younger Sonic cocked his head to the side in confusion "Time Eater- What?"

But Tails wasn't paying much attention to the younger Sonic at that point "How'd you get here?"

The younger Sonic shrugged as he returned his head to its original position "Well, I was fighting Egghead and some rouge Eggrobo over a super mech Eggman was trying to build called the Titanic Monarch, we were all fighting each other to get our hands on some gemstone Egghead found on Angle Island, and after I took out the rouge Eggrobo and Egghead that gemstone made some portal and I was sucked into it.. That's how I got here."

Tails slowly began to nod "Wait, wait, wait! That- That changes everything!"

The younger Sonic furrowed his brow in complete confusion "What changes everything?"

But Tails wasn't listening to the younger Sonic still, instead his head was beginning to nod faster now "Yeah! You're not from the past! You're from another dimension! You obviously have to be, because what you just described is the exact same theoretical process of interdenominational transportation!"

The younger Sonic sighed as he brought his hand up and began to rub his forehead out of frustration "Tails, come on man.. I don't speak science."

Tails just then heard the younger Sonic "Oh! Uh, so this world isn't your home this is like.. A copy of your world that's different in certain ways, like, me and my Sonic seem to be older then you and your Tails."

The younger Sonic took his hand off of his head "How old is _older_?"

Tails shrugged slightly "Like.. My Sonic is twenty five, and I'm eighteen."

The younger Sonic suddenly grew a shocked expression "...Wow... Dude, I'm still alive? And.. Why aren't you in college, that's like, one of the things you've been looking forwards to since I met you."

Tails sighed "I had planed on going last year, but..."

The younger Sonic could tell that Tails was starting to get emotional "Hey, I may not be this place's Sonic, but I'm still a Sonic. You can talk to me."

Tails nodded "I had planed on going last year but then Eggman launched a surprise attack, and he took over the world.. Because he was able to.. Kill my Sonic."

The younger Sonic grew another shocked expression "O- Oh... Okay, so, that's bad.. Yeah that's all I got, that's just bad."

Tails took in a shaky breath "Yeah.. But.. Now that you're here, maybe me and the Resistance might get another chance at taking down Eggman!"

The younger Sonic sighed "I just did that but okay. Where can we find this _Resistance_?"

Tails hesitantly said "Uh.. The thing about that is.. At this time of day, Eggman's army has blocked off and land route to the city's base, but, there is a base in Green Hill Zone so we can head there and send a message to main base."

The younger Sonic nodded "Sounds like a plan."

Before Tails lifted up into the air and led him away from the spot where the lifeless Chaos puddle was still resting.

* * *

12:47 P.M. An unknown Eggman facility.

* * *

Zavok walked through the cold blue tinted halls of Eggman's facility. He'd looked over to the robots that'd walk past them, but once they left his line of sight he lost interest, he honestly hated this place, but he was working for Eggman yet again so he'd have to deal with it, he'd just left the facility's prison block and was heading for what Eggman called a "living quarter" but it was actually just a small room with a bed to small for the large Zeti, a toilet, and a sink. Just then an Egg Pawn bumped into Zavok "Watch were your going."

He then shoved the robot away from himself before continuing down the hall, that Egg Pawn then walked into a room out of everyone and everything's way, that Egg Pawn then took of its head and Rouge the Bat began to take in several deep cool breaths. She hated the disguise she was forced to ware just to hide from Eggman and his robots, she then put the fake Egg Pawn head back on and returned to walking down the hallway heading for the cell block where Zavok had just come from. Once she entered it she saw that the cell block was one giant circular room, and in the center of the room was a large circular platform that'd open up and let transport ships come and go to take prisoners wherever. She walked through the room and past various cramped cells, once she reached the other side of the room she walked into a straight hall way that led over to a metal door, she walked past five other metal doors as she headed for the main one, each other door had a sign placed over it that either said "Solitary Confinement" or "Torturer Cell" she didn't want to see if anyone was in those rooms.

But she had to investigate the room in front of her. She slide the door open slightly and once she did she heard the sounds of electricity crackling and someone screaming out in agony and pain, that person was Sonic, Metal Sonic was in the room and it was surrounded by its electric field which it was using to torturer Sonic, who was strapped down to a metal chair, by shocking Sonic endlessly Rouge couldn't stop herself from gasping in complete shock which drew attention to herself, Metal Sonic turned its head and looked over its shoulder to the door that was still open slightly, it then took its hand off of Sonic and stopped shocking the Hedgehog, Metal Sonic began to stomp towards the door where Rouge was hiding behind when suddenly Sonic said to Metal "..H- Hey! Metal-Head!.. What's wrong?.. You sad that you can't. Agh! Keep up that dumb electricity shield?"

The robot clenched its fists before turning back around and stomping back towards Sonic. Rouge began to silently leave the hall as Sonic's screams began to fill it. She walked through the facility and to a room no one ever used, she slid into it and took off her Egg Pawn mask before running over to a long range radio setup she had put together "Knuckles! Knuckles come in!"

There was static mixed together with the sound of Knuckles' voice "R- Rouge? Wh- What's w- w- wrong?"

Rouge glanced over her shoulder making sure the coast was truly clear "Sonic, he's alive.. He's been imprisoned by Eggman in a his new orbital prison called the Egg Station! He's being tortured as we speak, the Resistance has to act now!"

Knuckles didn't answer right away and the long pause of static silence made Rouge fear that her setup had lost the Resistance's signal "A- Alright.. We're c- c- coming to get him a- and you, just, give u- us time."

Rouge sighed "I don't think I can give you time.. That masked guy who defeated Sonic, he's starting to get suspicious of me."

She could hear Knuckles' sigh "Alright, w- we'll try to send a t- team up there as quickly a- as we can, just.. Hold o- on."

Rouge nodded "Okay."

Knuckles then turned off his side of the long rang radio, Rouge also turned off her side of the radio and put on her Egg Pawn mask before walking out of the room and made her way through the orbital prison just trying to keep her head down and stay out of that masked one's way until the Resistance came up to the station to save Sonic and bring Rouge back down to the earth.


	4. Storm the Space Port

12:47 P.M. Underneath the ruins of Green Hill City, Resistance Base.

* * *

Rookie looked over his shoulder and at Matty as he followed Newt into the Training Room, a look of uncertainty, slight fear and confusion on his face. Once he and Newt entered the room the door behind them slid shut and Rookie decided that he should actually get a good look at the room he was technically forced into, the room looked like it was a large underground parking garage that had all above ground entrances sealed off, and it also had absolutely no cars in it, Newt the led Rookie towards an empty spot in a line of other Resistance soldiers. He looked to his right and saw that, going from the end of that side of the line to Rookie himself, was a orange furred Rabbit that wore a lot of leather and straps, then a brown colored Hedgehog that wore a blue hoodie, and finally a black furred Dog that wore a pair of red sneakers and white gloves, before he could look over to his left and see that side of the line Newt suddenly called out "Eyes on me!"

Rookie quickly straightened out and looked over to Newt. She surveyed the line of not-so-new recruits, well all except for Rookie who hasn't even started yet "Alright, we've gotten a new recruit recently. Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to Rookie."

The black Dog looked over to Rookie "Huh.. New blood, Eggman's gonna eat you alive."

The Rabbit snickered to herself "Say's the guy who almost wet himself on his first mission."

The Dog shook his head slightly "I never said that I was better than him.. I was just saying he's not gonna survive, like me."

Newt suddenly spoke up again "Quiet!... Good, now that you're all done blabbing we can get started. Before we start, head over to the crate and pick your Wispon, except you Rookie, you've already been given one."

The others walked over to a G.U.N. crate and began to pull out their own Wispons. Once that was done they returned to the line and Newt continued "Knuckles and Amy wants us to work on some things that you've all been lacking on, teamwork, and Rookie, this course'll give you a chance to get used to your Wispon."

As she finished the lights in the room began to turn off one by one "Once the lights go off I want you to run towards the closest section of cover you last saw when the lights were on.. Then, you'll know what to do."

Rookie quickly looked over to his left and saw a large pillar that helped to hold the roof up before the lights all finally went out. Rookie blindly ran through the dark heading for that pillar, all the while hoping he wouldn't trip and fall or embarrass himself in any way, he bumped into what felt like the pillar before getting down into a crouch and waiting there, after a few creepily silent moments the lights all turned back on and Rookie saw that Newt was gone, everyone else had scattered around the room, and they all heard the sound of heavy metal footsteps echoing through the Training Room. Suddenly a large metal hand grabbed onto the pillar Rookie was still hiding behind which caused him to recoil away in fear as the rest of that metal body stepped into his view, it was a large slightly bulky metal replica of Sonic that had large gauntlets that took up its arm and had a end that perturbed outwards to protect its elbow joint, it also had one singular visor in its head where eyes would be, said visor had one large dark orange colored iris and the rest of it was a pitch black color, as for its actual body it was body was mostly colored ultramarine blue, its joints and mouth area were also colored silver, Rookie knew who that robot was, it was the second robotic doppelganger of Sonic, it was Mecha Sonic.

Rookie stood up and ran from Mecha Sonic, but sadly it followed him. Rookie suddenly came to a stop when he saw that the rest of the training group already had their hands full, they were all busy dealing with Silver Sonic, Rookie quickly glanced over his shoulder only to almost be hit by Mecha Sonic's fist. Rookie quickly ducked down and was able to roll away from Mecha Sonic before getting back up and aiming his Wispon at the robot, he hesitantly put his finger on the trigger as he slowly backed away from Mecha, why couldn't he fire it, Mecha Sonic isn't a person, it isn't a living thing, why can't he fire?! Mecha Sonic was about to grab onto Rookie's Wispon and, out of a sudden burst of fear, he pulled the trigger and a massive blast of flames came flying out of the front of the weapon, the flames covered Mecha Sonic from head to robotic foot, a bright orange glow came off of the flames and bathed the surrounding areas of the Training Room in its light, Rookie suddenly took his finger off of the trigger and the flames stopped which let him see that in the place of Mecha Sonic there was now a bare Endoskeleton of a robot. The Endoskeleton collapsed onto the floor and Rookie stared down at it, a rush of happiness, and adrenaline filled him as he did "I- I did it.. I defended myself! I took out Mecha Sonic!"

At the same time he heard some one yell out "Watch where your aiming that!"

And as Rookie turned around he saw Silver Sonic roll up into a large spiky ball and charge at two of the trainees, Rookie was about to try and help them but he was too late, Silver Sonic barreled towards the Rabbit and before it shredded her it suddenly un balled itself and slid across the ground stopping at the front of her feet. Newt then suddenly yelled out "Stop! Just stop!"

She walked out from behind a wall and over to the group that had tried, and failed, to deal with Silver Sonic "You're so hopeless! You can't work together on a mission and you can't work together here! If that was actually Silver Sonic you would've been shredded alive, all of you!"

She then turned around and faced Rookie, letting out a sigh as she said "Nice job kid."

He was about to say something when suddenly the voice of Knuckles came over the base's speaker system "Listen up! Newt, Matty, Vector, Charmy, and Espio I need all of you to report to the main room! I've got some information you're all gonna want to hear."

Everyone could hear the sound of Amy talking to Knuckles over the speaker, he sighed "You know what, Rookie, why don't you come stop by as well.. Wouldn't heart ya' to hear what I gotta say."

Newt then walked over to Rookie and the two were about to leave the room when that black furred Dog said "What about us?"

Newt looked over to him "You're staying in here and going through that process again until you can all work together properly."

The Dog grumbled to himself as Newt and Rookie both left the Training Room.

* * *

12:48 P.M. Ruins of Green Hill City.

* * *

the younger Sonic ran through the streets of the decimated city while Tails flew over head, the younger Sonic scratched his right ear, he had yet to get used to the ear piece Tails had given him so his ear felt kinda uncomfortable and weird. Younger Sonic took a quick look at his surroundings as he said "This place is like a ghost town."

And suddenly the voice of Tails came over the ear piece "The radar shows Eggman up ahead. Enemies could be lying in wait, so watch your step."

Tails sighed as he turned off the Mini-Miles-Electric he was able to hobble together using some parts that came from some destroyed Egg Pawns "I get a feeling that Eggman has some tricks up his sleeve."

The younger Sonic jumped up into the air and once he hit the ground he immediately sped off, that was a little move he liked to call a Drop Dash, as he rolled across the streets of the city he crashed through any robots that were in his way. He quickly uncurled himself and sprinted down the street "This version of Egghead has conquered the world and his robots can still be sliced in half like butter? How does he even keep control of this place?"

Suddenly the ground underneath him cracked and caved in under him, he fell into the cities drained sewers and got up brushing himself off as he did, he then began to run through the sewers when robots began to appear around every corner, he was able to effortlessly take them out, but the fact they just appeared outa now took the younger Sonic by surprise. He quickly jumped up into the air and Spin Attacked through the ceiling of the sewers. Once he landed above ground he began to run across a bridge that might've had a river running underneath it at one point, but now it was empty, as he ran across the bride he heard the sound of a large foot step over to his left and when he looked over to it he saw a massive black and white colored Death Egg Robot that only had one red eye, the younger Sonic skid to a halt as he watched three to four giant Death Egg Robots tare through the city "..That answers my previous question."

He then resumed his running when the voice of Tails came back over the ear piece "This is terrible. They've made a total mess of the place. We have to stop Eggman and end this war quick!"

The younger Sonic stepped off of the bridge and continued forwards. He ran through a house that had a massive hole cut through it as if it was hit by a giant laser, which it probably was, he quickly exited the house and turned to his right where he saw hundreds of Egg Pawns all standing in a row, the younger Sonic quickly jumped up into the air and hit the ground blasting off into a Drop Dash that cut through all of the Egg Pawns in front of him, as he rolled the voice of Tails came over the ear piece "Careful Sonic- Younger Sonic I mean. I'm detecting a ton of readings besides Eggman, too."

The younger Sonic unballed himself and ran past a a burning park when suddenly Tails landed next to him. The younger Sonic skid to a halt before saying "Good to see that you've decided to join me down here on the ground."

Tails scratched the back of his head as the two began to make their way down the road "Yeah, it's just safer for me to stay in the air while Eggman has control over this city, and the world."

The younger Sonic grinned slightly "And I guess I'm supposed to be safer down here?"

Tails nodded "You are a Sonic, you maybe younger, but you're still a Sonic... You know, I should figure out something else to call you that isn't Sonic or younger Sonic shouldn't I?"

The younger Sonic shrugged "Yeah why not."

Tails entered deep thought as he tried to come up with a nickname for the younger Sonic. The two continued to walk through the city keeping out of any and all of Eggman's robot's sight, eventually the two reached the edge of the city when Tails suddenly said "I know! I'll call you Blue!"

The younger Sonic looked over to Tails "It took you that long to come up with that nickname?"

Tails shrugged "What? It's not that bad of a name!"

Blue shook his head as he snickered to himself "Yeah whatever."

Suddenly Tails' Mini-Miles-Electric started beeping, Tails took out the miniature device and looked at it "Whoa! Those readings that I got before, one of them is stronger than the others! What could it be?"

Blue grinned "Doesn't matter to me so long as I get to smash it!"

Tails put away the Mini-Miles-Electric before saying "You might just get to, come on, the readings are right up ahead."

Tails flew up off of the ground and Blue zoomed off heading into Green Hill Zone.

* * *

12:48 P.M. Resistance Base, Briefing Room.

* * *

Rookie, Newt, and Matty both walked over to the table sitting in the middle of the room where Amy, Knuckles, Vector, Charmy, and Espio were all standing next to. Newt saluted Knuckles "Sir!"

Knuckles waved his hand dismissing Newt's formality "Don't worry, I'm fine with being called Knuckles, and there's no need to salute me."

Newt relaxed as her, Matty, and Rookie both joined the core Resistance members at the table, Knuckles got everyone's attention "Ahem! So, the reason why I called you all here is to give you some incredible news.. Sonic is alive!"

Everyone at the table was engulfed in excitement and Amy, completely enveloped in joy, yelled out "What!? Oh, thank goodness! I knew it, I knew it!"

Knuckles waited for everyone to calm down before continuing "He's captured in an orbital prison called the Egg Station. My spy there says he's in a solitary confinement cell, and they've been torturing him since Eggman took over."

Charmy suddenly said "That's horrible! We have to rescue him!"

Knuckles smiled confidently "Plan's already happening, Charmy. I've got a squad on the way to the Space Port in the Chemical Plant to _borrow_ a shuttle."

Vector grinned confidently "Alright! Who's up for an old-school style jailbreak?"

Knuckles then said "You heard the Croc! Let's go!"

Everyone in the room then ran towards one of the doors, although Rookie was just following everyone else. Once they all left the Briefing Room Knuckles slowed down and walked along side Rookie, Newt, and Matty "I've already given the Chaotix their orders, and all that's left is you three."

Matty grabbed onto her purple bandana and put it over her mouth "Lay it on us."

Knuckles nodded "The squad that I sent ahead is called the Special Forces, and you three are gonna meet up with them at the launch platform in the Space Port."

Newt nodded confidently "Yes sir."

Knuckles patted Newt on the back "You don't have to call me sir, but I'm honestly not gonna stop you."

Amy then called for Knuckles and he ran over to her. Rookie looked over to Matty "How are we getting to the Chemical Plant?"

Matty placed her googles over her eyes "We stole a small transport boat from Eggman not to long ago, so we're probably piling into that and sneaking into the Plant."

Rookie nodded "Alright. And how are we getting to the Space Port?"

Suddenly Amy stepped in front of the three of them "With these!"

And in her hands were three wrist-mounted grappling hooks, the three slipped the grappling hooks onto their wrists and Amy let them continue walking. The Resistance fighters all snuck out of the base and made their way to the coast of South Island, specifically an old tackle and bait shop placed on an abandoned dock. Knuckles knocked on the shop's door and a moment latter the door was cracked open by someone on the other side "Who's there?"

Knuckles leaned against the door "It's Agent Spike, and I'm here with my rock band."

Rookie looked over to Matty confused, but that somehow worked and the door opened up. Despite its outside looks, the shop actually didn't have anything inside of it, except for a small transport ship that could fit Rookie, Newt, Matty, and all of the Chaotix slightly, Knuckles turned to his left and said "Thanks again Agent Arin."

Rookie looked over to his left and saw that Knuckles was talking to a big purple cat that had a brown belt with a golden buckle on, and a pair of brown sandals, the big cap nodded before walking over to a chair in the corner of the room, Rookie looked Newt still very confused "Who was that?"

Newt glanced over to the cat "His name's Big, he may seem.. Odd, but trust me, he's a caring guy."

Rookie nodded as Knuckles pulled a lever placed on a wall next to the front door that caused the floor underneath the ship to open up and the vehicle itself dropped onto the water. The soldiers that were being sent to the Chemical Plant all piled into the ship before Knuckles walked over to the edge of the open section of the floor "Chaotix, you're gonna distract the forces in the Chemical Plant for the other troops heading in there."

Vector nodded "You got it."

Espio then turned on the boat and Amy closed the hatch above them while the ship began to make its way towards their target.

* * *

12:59 P.M. off the coast of the Northern Isle, the Chemical Plant.

* * *

The ship came to a stop on the beach of the island, cold air rushed past everyone stepped out of the boat and onto the snow covered beach. Vector turned around and faced the group of soldiers behind him "Okay, me and the Chaotix are gonna head out first. We'll give you guys the signal to go when we get the guard bots' attention."

The three of them nodded before Espio suddenly disappeared in a puff of white smoke, Charmy flew up into the air heading for the deeper parts of the Chemical Plant, and Vector ran after the Bee. Matty shivered slightly as she rubbed her arms to try and warm herself up "Man this place is cold!"

Rookie nodded as he brought his hands up to his mouth and began to breath on them to try and thaw them "Y- Yeah, wish I had more layers on!"

But Newt wasn't shivering, she looked as focused and determined as ever "Wh- Why isn't she cold?"

Matty glanced over to Newt for a second before looking back over to Rookie and answering his question "She grew up in Holoska, so this kind of weather is a cake walk for her. As for me, I grew up in Spagonia, which does get pretty cold occasionally, but it's never as cold as Holoska, let alone this place."

Rookie sighed "I grew up back in Green Hill City, so I've never really been exposed to such cold weather."

Matty giggled slightly as the two canines tried their best to stay warm. After a minute or so Matty suddenly spoke up "Hey, Rookie. If it isn't to much to ask, did your family escape the city before Eggman took it over?"

Rookie shakily nodded "Y- Yeah they did. I haven't heard from them since, but I know they're safe."

Matty's expression soured slightly before saying "Me and Newt.. We don't really know if our families are okay... But, I know they are, they have to be. Newt's family is a bunch of wilderness survival experts, and my folks, they're smart. They probably hid away somewhere in Spagonia, probably in one of Professor Pickle's refugee camps."

Rookie looked over to Matty slightly confused "Wh- What? Pickle has a refugee camp?"

Newt nodded suddenly "Yeah, the professor always opens up some of his smaller schools to house refugees, I'm pretty sure the Spagonian Resistance turned those schools into safe zones for survivors."

Matty nodded "And that's just where my parents are. I know it."

There was a moment of silence before Rookie looked at the wrist-mounted grappling hook "H- How do we use these?"

Newt turned around and faced Rookie, showing him her grappling hook in the process "You just point it at any surface that it can sink its claws into, and then you're gonna pull your arm back, and thrust it back out, that'll launch the hook and before you know it you'll be soaring through the sky."

Rookie gave her a shaky smile due to the cold "Th- Thanks Newt."

She was about to say something when their communicators went off and the voice of Vector came over it "We've gotten the bots' attention! Get going!"

Matty brushed some snow off of the top of her googles "You heard him! Let's go!"

She then took out her Electric Wispon and ignited it. The three of them ran across the snow covered beach and into the Chemical Plant, Matty's electric whip crackled and popped as they ran which somehow increased Rookie's fear, maybe it was because he was afraid the electricity that was practically right next to him would suddenly pop at just the right moment to hit him, or maybe it was because as they ran across a frost covered metal bridge Egg Pawns turned around to face them. Matty suddenly passed the other two and quickly took out the three Egg Pawns that stood in their way with her whip, as Rookie and Newt caught up with Matty the red Wolf said "That was awesome!"

Matty looked over to Rookie, and the red Wolf could tell she was smiling behind bandana "I know right!?"

Newt suddenly spoke up as she put on her voice changing mouth piece "Heads up, more robots!"

Rookie looked ahead and saw five Egg Pawns standing in their way. As they approached the robots the voice of Espio came over their communicators "Espio here. My team's engaging the enemy in the orbital tunnel!"

They could hear the voice of Vector faintly saying "Your team?!"

Over their communicators but Espio continued anyways "I think we can hold them off for now."

Suddenly everyone could hear a strange sound that sent a familiar chill down Rookie's spine "No, wait! The masked one's here! The monster that killed Sonic!"

There was the sound of an explosion that came over the communicator and after a few silent minutes they heard Vector's voice come through it "Stay focused rookies! We're off to get a different shuttle so that masked monster and Eggman's robots don't chase after to guys!"

Newt suddenly said to Rookie "You're up! Take out those bots!"

Rookie nodded slightly before holding up his Burst Wispon and pulling the trigger. The five robots that stood in their way all exploded instantly upon contact with the jet of fire that came out of Rookie's Wispon. The three suddenly skid to a halt and stared up to a large wall, Matty held out her hand and aimed her grappling hook at the top of the wall, she then pulled it back and thrust it out before a metal cable launched out of the grappling hook, it grabbed onto the top of the wall and Matty was suddenly pulled up to the top by the retracting cable. Newt and Rookie both did the same thing as Matty and once they caught up with her they were greeted by a large group of Egg Pawns, Newt jumped up into the air, took out her Cube Wispon, and slammed it down onto the ground, once she did a blue shock wave rolled across the ground quickly and suddenly the Egg Pawns in front of her were encased in a large blue cube, Newt ran over to the lead cube covered Pawn and she hit the block that surrounded it with the hammer, all of the robots that were stuck inside of cubes exploded in bright blue flashes.

The three ran forwards taking out any robots that stood in their way when suddenly the bridge they were running across came to an end, Rookie skid to a halt and almost fell off of the bridge, luckily Newt grabbed onto the back of Rookie's combat pouches and pulled him back onto the bridge, Rookie looked over to his fellow soldiers "What do we do now?"

Matty stepped forwards and pointed at something "Look! Train rails!"

Newt and Rookie both stepped forwards and looked over the edge of the bridge and at a metal train rain that was suspended in midair, Newt looked over to Matty "Good eye! Come on let's go."

She then jumped off of the bridge and landed on the train rail, she then used her back leg to push herself forwards and began to grind across the rail. Rookie looked over to Matty "I've never done this before!"

Matty jumped off of the bridge as well before saying "Just pretend its a skateboard! Or if you don't know how to use a skateboard either, you can just use your acrobatic skills to keep your balance!"

She then kicked off of the rail and grinned away from him. Rookie took in a shaky deep breath before jumping off of the bridge and landing on the rail, a metal clang rang from the rail underneath him as his boots landed on it, he hesitantly used his back leg to kick off of the rail and he suddenly began to grind forwards gaining more and more speed as he did, suddenly the voice of Newt came over his earpiece "Me and Matty can't wait for you. We'll met you at the Space Port."

Rookie nodded "You got it."

His earpiece then turned off and he continued to grind, gaining more confidence in his grinding skills as he did. When suddenly the rails came to a stop, and in order to prevent himself from falling into the freezing water below him he jumped off of the rail and landed on a multi-tiered platform in front of the rail, Rookie picked himself up off of the ground and began to climb up the platform, once he reached the top of the platform he looked over to his left and saw a yellow train driving down a set of train rails that sat in front of the platform, Rookie turned his earpiece back on and contacted Amy "Hey! I can see something that looks like a.. Freight train."

Rookie heard Amy typing away at a keyboard before she said "It's carrying supplies. I don't think it's armed or anything."

Rookie nodded before turning off his earpiece and attempting to jump to the train rail. Sadly he didn't time it well and he suddenly landed on top of the caboose of the freight train. He slid across the top of the train car and before he almost fell off it he was able to grab onto the corner of the box shaped yellow car, he pulled himself up and began to crawl across the roof of the car, but once he looked to the front of the train he saw that it was quickly approaching a tunnel that's entrance was too low for Rookie to pass underneath. He frantically looked around his surroundings trying to find a safe way off of the train when he suddenly looked up and saw that he could grapple up to the top of the tunnel, he quickly fired the metal cable and zipped off of the top of the train car, once he reached the end of the cable the hook let go of the top of the tunnel and Rookie was flung forwards by his own momentum, he quickly looked over to his left and saw another freight train heading straight for him, he fired his grappling hook again, it attached to a crane, and he was pulled away from the second train. He had to detach the hook from the crane or else he'd be stuck up there, but once he did he was sent flying through the air due to his momentum yet again, there wasn't anything underneath him except for more freezing water, and he couldn't grapple off towards the right or left because he could see the Space Port dead ahead of him, Rookie had to act fast, he had to fire the hook at the right time so he wouldn't miss a metal pipe that he could use to swing into the area of the Chemical Plant in front of him.

Rookie quickly fired the hook and it attached to the red metal pipe, he used the metal cable to swing off of the pipe and he entered the tall roofed interior of the Chemical Plant. Rookie tumbled across the ground before finally coming to a stop and standing up, as he stood up Egg Pawns fell from the roof and landed in front of him, Rookie quickly held up his Wispon and fired it at them, the robots exploded and Rookie ran forwards when suddenly his ear piece turned on "This is Espio, in order to prevent Eggman's forces from destroying the Chatoix's shuttle I've volunteered to stay behind." Rookie skid to a halt and spoke into his ear piece "What?! No you could get outnumbered and fast!"

"I'm afraid it's what I must do to keep my friends safe."

Suddenly the voice of Newt came over the ear piece "Espio, it's not the only way. You could have Eggman's forces chase after you into the facility only for you to disappear and lose them, then you can join me, Matty, Rookie, and the Special Forces at the Space Port so that we can all head up to the Egg Station."

"I- I'll see what I can do. But for now leave the bulk of Eggman's forces to me."

Then the voice of Matty said "Alright Espio.. Rookie, Newt. You heard him let's head in while he keeps them busy!"

Rookie nodded before continuing forwards. As he ran more and more Egg Pawns would just fall from the ceiling and get in his way, but each time Rookie would take them out with his Wispon, it was almost therapeutic to watch the robots explode into harmless scrap metal and it sort of gave Rookie a twinge of self-confidence, the path Rookie was running along suddenly came to a stop, but above him there was a yellow pipe that snaked upwards and to a different pathway. Rookie jumped up and grappled up to the pipe, he then climbed up it and ran to the other pathway before continuing towards the Space Port, as he did the voice of Amy came over his earpiece "Report from the Special Forces: All quiet at the launch pad for now. But, that might not last long so everyone needs to grab a shuttle before they sound the alarm!"

Rookie ran through what looked to be a cargo bay for those freight trains as Buzz Bombers flew over head and fired at him, Rookie tried his best to use his Wispon to take them out but the reach of the fire was limited, suddenly a Bomber fired at Rookie's feet which caused him to fall over and as he fell his grappling hook suddenly went off, it attached to a Bomber and Rookie was dragged towards it. He stretched his feet out to try and brace himself for impact, but instead of ramming into it like a wall, he hit it and bounced off of it, as he fell back to the ground he watched as the Bomber exploded, he could use his hook to preform some kind of Wire Attack! Rookie quickly got back up and, intentionally, fired his hook at another Bomber, he was dragged up into the air and Wire Attacked it before grappling onto another Bomber and doing the same to it, after a minute or so he had taken out all of the Bombers with his new found move, the Wire Attack, Rookie continued forwards when he suddenly reached another set of train rails that headed right towards the cargo bay for the Space Port, he quickly jumped onto one of the rails and grinned towards the Port. As he did the voice of Vector came over his ear piece "Perfect! They won't mind if we take this for a while."

Rookie then heard the sound of loud rumbling come from his right and when he looked towards that direction he saw a space shuttle begin to take off, as he watched the shuttle that more than likely had the Chaotix on board it Knuckles suddenly barked an order to him "Hurry it up Rookie! The Special Forces won't leave until everyone's on board their shuttle, which should be happening here soon! Step on it!"

Rookie quickly kicked off of the train rail again which gave him a boost of speed as he reached the end of the rails. But he couldn't get off there, because if he did he'd be stuck behind a tall fence. So he quickly jumped off of the end of the rail and used his grappling hook to fling himself to the other side, he paced underneath a metal archway before landing in the Space Port, he quickly began to run towards the massive snow covered shuttle that sat before him as he saw the engines turn on. As he approached the still extended loading ramp he could see Matty waving to him from the shuttle's door, Rookie quickly grappled to the door and flung himself into the ship as it began to take off, Matty closed the shuttle's door as she helped Rookie up "That was some entrance!"

Rookie nodded "Yeah it was. Agh! B- But it did hurt though."

Matty rubbed his shoulder to try and ease his pain "I bet, come on, the SF are waiting for you in the shuttle's bridge."

She then began to lead Rookie towards the bridge while the artificial gravity kicked in as the shuttle began to leave the atmosphere of the planet. The metal doors to the bridge slid open and the two of them walked in, Rookie's mouth hung open as he stared out the bridge's front window, he could see the infinite expanses of space lying right in front of him, it was breath taking, it was also kinda cool to see the snow and frost melt off of the window as the shuttle broke atmosphere, suddenly an unfamiliar female voice said to him "So you're this Rookie I've been hearing so much about?"

He looked to his left and saw standing next to a computer terminal was a brown furred Chipmunk with dark auburn hair that connected to the stripe that went down her back and ended at her tail. She had blue eyes, and wore black shorts with white rimming, dark blue boots with white outlines on the buckles, and white gloves with blue bracelets placed at the ends of the gloves. She also wore a closed blue vest with a black crop-top hidden underneath it, and she was showing a minor amount of mid-drift that let Rookie know she had a tan skin colored belly, she also had a pair of blue rimed goggles placed on the top of her head underneath her hair, and bandages wrapped around certain parts of her legs, arms, and even some placed on the underside of her face. Rookie nodded "Y- Yeah that's me."

She held her hand out for Rookie to shake it, which he hesitantly did "My name's Sally Acorn, but my code name is Agent Prince. I'm the leader of the Special Forces."

She let go of Rookie's hand and he placed it on top of his Wispon "O- Oh, cool. I'm new to the Resistance so, I don't really know much about you and you're team."

Sally nodded before suddenly yelling out "Special Forces! Front and center!"

Then three other people ran over to her and Rookie, they stood in front of him in a straight line. Going from the left to the right, there was a Coyote that wore a blue jacket with red trim, gold pads on the shoulders and red boots, a Lynx that wore a dark purple dress, black pants, white fingerless gloves, and dark purple boots, and a Rabbit that wore a light purple shirt, brown jacket, and light purple boots. Sally then walked over to Rookie's side and said "That Coyote's code name is Agent Cutlass, the Lynx's code name is Agent Shard, and the Rabbit's code name is Agent Rabbot."

Rookie looked over to Sally "And their real names?"

Sally nodded to the line of Agents and they began to say their own names.

The Coyote: "Antoine D'Coolette"

The Lynx: "Nicole"

The Rabbit: "Bunnie"

Rookie didn't really know what to do so he awkwardly waved "Hi.. My name's Dustin, or, I guess.. Agent Rookie."

Antoine smiled "It is nice to meet you, agent Rookie."

Antoine seemed to have a Spagonian accent, unlike Matty, Bunnie also had an accent but it wasn't as exotic as a Spagonian accent, because due to South Island's proximity to the southern parts of the United Federations he's always been able to hear southern Federation accents, Nicole, she had a regular old voice, at least to Rookie's ears. He just then remembered something "Wait, where's Espio?"

Nicole stepped forwards "Don't worry, he got aboard not to long before you. He's actually in the shuttle's cargo bay right now."

Rookie nodded "Okay.. H- How was he.. After."

Bunnie then said "If you're asking if he was okay after fighting that monster, the answer is yes."

Rookie let out a revealing breath "Good."

Suddenly the bridge's computers began to beep. Everyone turned to look out the front windows and saw that they were approaching the Egg Station, Sally readjusted her right bracelet as she said "Alright everyone, get ready we're about to head in."

Rookie took in a shaky breath as he nodded before Newt and Matty lead him out of the bridge and to the cargo bay, which is where they'd wait for the ship to dock at Eggman's orbital prison the Egg Station.


	5. Survive the Prison Hall

**I FEEL LIKE I SHOULD ADDRESS THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER, CUZ IT WAS PRETTY BIG, I HONESTLY COULD NOT STOP WRITING THE CHAPTER AND I HAD A LOT OF FUN WRITING THE SPACE PORT SEQUENCE.**

 **ALSO THE REASON WHY I'M INCLUDING SONIC COMIC/SONIC SatAM CHARACTERS IS BECAUSE BACK WHEN THE GAME WAS KNOWN AS Project Sonic 2017 PEOPLE HOPED THAT SEGA WOULD FINALLY BRING THEM IN TO THE GAMES, AND I WAS KINDA HOPING THEY'D DO IT TOO.**

 **ANYWAYS THAT'S ALL, PLEASE ENJOY THIS NEXT CHAPTER AND R &R IF YOU WOULDN'T MIND. ALSO THIS IS THE FIRST NON-PRE-WRITTEN CHAPTER I'VE DONE FOR THIS STORY, JUST THOUGHT I SHOULD MENTION THAT.**

* * *

2:14 P.M. On Earth, Resistance Base, Briefing Room.

* * *

Knuckles and Amy both silently stood alone in the empty room. The two of them were intently watching the large screen that sat on the wall in front of them just waiting for any kind of news, good or bad, they just wanted news, when suddenly the long range radio turned on and the voice of Rouge came through it "K- K- Knuckles? Can y- you here me?" Knuckles turned to face the radio that was placed on the table that sat in the middle of the room "Rouge! It's about time! How's Sonic doing?" Rouge sighed "H- H- He's been b- better. They're getting ready to execute him." Amy suddenly spoke up "What?! You can't be serious!" Rouge went silent for a moment before continuing "E- E- Eggman's been k- keeping Sonic alive all this t- time just so h- h- he can show Sonic his completed e- empire, before executing h- him." Knuckles clenched his fists "And he's been torturing Sonic just to pass the time.. I'd say that's low even for Eggman.. But he made that.. _THING_ , so it honestly doesn't surprise me. It just sickens me." there was a silent moment between everyone to try and calm down enough to keep things professional.

Rouge then said "Eggman got wind of our rescue plan and is moving forward with his plan ahead of schedule. The clock is ticking boss." Amy put her hands on the table before saying "But we don't even know where Sonic's being held captive in the Egg Station!"

"Yes we do, or yes I do. Eggman's keeping Sonic in cell block 4, it's a high level security area so it'll be a very dangerous place for any soldier. But that's where Eggman's keeping Sonic." Amy shook her head "A high security area, that's not good." Knuckles sighed "Sadly Amy, none of this is good. That's why it's called war." he took in a deep breath and said to the radio/Rouge "Can you link up with the invading soldiers and tell them where to find Sonic?"

"Y- Y- You got it K- K- K- K-" Rouge's voice was suddenly cut off as static replaced it, Knuckles tried to fiddle around with the radio's dials but there was only static "Rouge? Rouge? Rouge!? ROUGE!?" Amy opened up the computer that sat in front of her and began to investigate what was going on, when she suddenly gasped "Eggman's blocking the signal! He's blocking all incoming and outgoing signals from the Egg Station!" Knuckles looked over to Amy, a look of fear washed over his face "What?! That means the Special Forces, Rookie, Matty, Newt.. Rouge. They're all cut off from us!" Amy sadly nodded "Our only hope is that they can stumble upon Sonic's cell block and break him free, or that Rouge is somehow able to meet up with them and show them the way." Knuckles also nodded sadly before looking back over to the wall mounted screen and silently saying "Rouge, Rookie, Newt, Matty, and all of the Special Forces.. May the Chaos Spirits watch over you, please, be safe." sadly despite Knuckles' best wishes, he and Amy couldn't do anything except wait for good news, and it had to be good news, it just had to be.

* * *

2:16 P.M. Above the planet, just outside of the Egg Station, cargo shuttle 453.

* * *

Rookie, Matty, and Newt all walked into the cargo bay of the ship and they all saw Espio sitting on a red crate a little bit in front of the door. Rookie stepped forwards "Espio! You're alright-" except he technically wasn't, Espio's horn was broken in half and he had several bruises all over his body, Espio sighed "Don't worry about me Agent Rookie. I'm fine, what we should be worrying about is the fact we don't know what we're walking into, and I can't get a message to my fellow Chaotix." Matty took her bandana off of her mouth which showed off her frown "That's not good." Newt nodded "It definitely isn't good. But we can handle it." Espio grinned slightly "That is good." he then got off of the crate he was sitting on before the voice of Sally came over the shuttle's PA system "We're approaching the Egg Station now!" as she finished the rest of the Special Forces suddenly entered the cargo bay. Rookie turned around and said to Nicole "Sally isn't coming?" Nicole nodded "She wants to stay behind and guard the shuttle." Antoine sighed "I'd love to stay behind and protect her but it is my duty to follow her orders so I must join you all on the Egg Station." Bunnie nodded "Ah'd love to stay behind and help her too Twan, but we got a job to do." everyone could feel the shuttle come to a stop before they all made their way over to the cargo bay's doors.

As they all stood in front of the bay doors waiting for them to open Matty looked over to Rookie "You okay?" Rookie also looked over to Matty, only he was giving her a look of confusion "Wh- What do you mean?" Matty shrugged "You just look.. Scared." at that moment Rookie could feel all of the anxiety in his body, he was holding onto his Wispon with a death grip, he felt sweaty, and his heart was beating a million miles per second "I- I am scared. But how else am I supposed to feel?" Matty sighed "There really isn't any other way to feel right now. Just stay safe and you'll make it out alive." Rookie nodded "Yeah, I'll make it out alive." Matty grinned "That's the spirit." she then looked over to Newt "Hey, how's about a good luck kiss?" Newt didn't looked over to Matty, instead she continued to focus on the door "Right now? Really?" Matty nodded "Come on, is my big fluffy girlfriend worried that she'll be embarrassed if she kisses me?" Newt sighed before looking over to Matty "Fine, come here." she then pulled Matty in for a quick kiss on the lips, meanwhile Rookie just tried his hardest to not stare and to try and calm himself down, Bunnie was glancing over to Antoine every so often while the Coyote readjusted the sword strapped to his hip, and Nicole stood next to Espio, the both of them just waiting for the doors to open.

Suddenly sirens began to sound off as the door slowly slid open and a cargo ramp came out from underneath the door. They all ran out of the shuttle and down the ramp, the cargo bay of the Egg Station didn't have any enemies inside of it which was odd, and that only added to Rookie's anxiety, the Special Forces soldiers came to a stop and so did everyone else when suddenly the voice of Sally came over the cargo shuttle's exterior speakers "Listen up! Nicole, Antoine, Bunnie! You take Espio to go find the rest of the Chaotix then you'll help them try and find Knuckles' spy and Sonic! Matty, Newt, Rookie you three go and try to find Sonic yourselves! Who ever finds him first needs to contact the other Resistance soldiers in this space station and get back to this shuttle." Nicole nodded before facing the group "Let's go guys." the three Special Forces members all took Espio and ran towards one of the hallways. Matty, Newt, and Rookie looked at each other before they all ran towards a separate hallway, they ran through the hallway and it eventually turned into a bridge that stretched across a massive open space, Rookie could see over the sides of the bridge's rails that bellow them was nothing but weapons and robots manufacturing plants, Rookie suddenly looked away from the area bellow him when the sound of Newt and Matty firing off their grappling hooks caught his attention.

Newt and Matty's hooks grabbed onto a poll over to their left and they used that leverage to quickly turn a sharp corner. Rookie thrust his arm out and fired off his grappling hook at the same poll Matty and Newt had hooked onto, he then took in a deep breath before holding onto it and turning the same sharp corner as Matty and Newt, as he turned he almost ran into Matty, but he panicked, retracted the metal cable, and almost fell onto his face, as he fell his finger pushed his Wispon's trigger slightly which caused a small blast of fire to come out of the front of the Wispon, that small blast caused Rookie to be launched high up into the air, screaming as he did. Matty quickly spun around as Rookie was launched up into the air "Whoa! Dude are you okay!?" as Rookie got higher up into the air he was able to yell out a response "Y- Yeah I'm fine!" after that he then landed another pathway that hung over Matty and Newt's heads, as he stood up he picked up his Wispon again before looking in front of himself and saw six Egg Pawns all standing in front of him. Rookie quickly scrambled up and onto his feet while the robots charged up their blasters and fired at him, Rookie quickly tucked and rolled out of the Egg Pawn's fire while Matty and Newt quickly engaged a different gathering of Egg Pawns that stood in front of them, Rookie aimed his Burst Wispon at the Egg Pawns and pulled its trigger destroying the Pawns closest to him, Matty took out her Electric Wispon and whipped at the Pawns while Newt took out her Cube Wispon and smashed it into the lead Pawn.

Rookie lunged forwards and took out the last Egg Pawns with his Wispon, he ran over to the end of the pathway he had launched himself up onto and saw that below him was the pathway Matty and Newt were still on. Matty wrapped her whip around one of the Egg Pawn's head and she tore it off while Newt slammed her hammer against the ground and encased the Egg Pawns that had surrounded her in large blue cubes, Matty then quickly spun around and used her Electric Wispon to take out the cubed Pawns when suddenly Rookie dropped down and landed on their pathway, he groaned slightly as he stood up straight "That was a long fall." Matty and Newt ran over to him. Newt quickly asked "You okay?" and Rookie nodded his head "Yeah, that fall just stung." Matty took the little break they were currently in to pull her bandana back over her mouth "Let's get moving!" Rookie nodded as he turned around and stared up at the large wall that stood in front of the three of them "How are we gonna get over this?"Newt glanced around their surroundings "It seems like this is supposed to be some kind of lift, but those Egg Pawns have disabled it and none of us know how to activate it again." Rookie looked at his wrist for a moment before quickly running towards the wall and putting a foot on it, he then shoved off of the wall and fired his grappling hook at the top of it, he was then pulled up to the top a small smile of confidence grew across his face as he reached the top.

As Newt and Matty both did the same thing as Rookie the red Wolf saw two Buzz Bombers flying towards him. He quickly jumped up into the air and Wire Attacked them, while he took out the last Bomber Matty and Newt both reached the top of that wall and saw Rookie's Wire Attack, Matty yelled out "COOL!" as Rookie landed on the ground "Yeah, I guess so." the three of them then heard the voice of Nicole come over their communicators "We've linked up with Knuckles' spy and are currently making our way to Sonic's cell. Newt, Matty, Rookie how are you three doing at your side of the facility?" Rookie quickly spoke into his headset "We're doing fine, we should be heading towards one of the facility's prison blocks right now." suddenly the voice of Rouge came over the three's communicators "Good, and we all might want to hurry up. Before the SF found me I was talking to Knuckles and Amy, when suddenly my signal was just cut off. I think Eggman's up to something, something bad." Matty then said "We're hurrying it up now!" she then started to run forwards before looking over her shoulder and to Newt and Rookie "Come on guys!" the other two nodded before they also ran forwards.

They followed Matty down a spiral stair case and as they did they past by various solitary confinement cells that had what looked to be Resistance soldiers locked inside of them, Matty said into her communicator "We've entered one of the cell blocks and it seems like the prisoners here are being held inside of some kind of internment facility. I hope Sonic's in here." the voice of Rouge then came over their communicators and said in response "Security's tight all over the place, so stay on your toes." as they ran through the prison hall Egg Pawns suddenly came out of small openings in the walls and stood in the three's way. Rookie ran forwards and quickly blasted the robots with his Wispon, they then ran through the smoke left behind from the fire and the explosion of the robots when they suddenly came to a dead end and Egg Pawns appeared behind them and cornered them, as Matty leaped into action the voice of Antoine came over their communicators "Nothing in zis room either." then the voice of Vector came over the communicators as well "Man! We're still trying to fight our way out of the place we landed in. They've got us pined down!" Matty destroyed the last Egg Pawn and the robots explosion sent its severed arm flying towards a button on the dead end wall.

Once the arm hit the button the area Rookie was standing on suddenly sprouted guard rails and it began to lift up into the air. Newt quickly spun around, jumped up, and grabbed onto the lift "Matty come on!" the white Dog ran over to her girlfriend and jumped onto her back while the lift carried the three of them upwards, once it reached the top of that not-so-dead-end-wall Newt and Matty climbed up onto the lift and Rookie helped them stand up, as he did the voice of Espio came over their communicators "Vector, Charmy. I've broken off from the Special Forces with their permission to assist you two."

"Thanks Espio, we really need the help." Once Matty and Newt got back up onto their feet the three returned to running through the prison hall they were stuck in. As they ran robots would try and attack them but the three were able to take them out using their Wispons, as they continued to run the voice of Bunnie came over their communicators "Looks like this place was used up until recently." the voice of Espio responded "It appears that many of brethren were held here." Matty grumbled to herself "That's one more thing Eggman will answer for." the other two nodded before sirens began to sound all around them and Matty said "Uh-oh. They're on high alert now." before they used their grappling hooks to turn another sharp corner. Once they turned the corner they all let out a gasp as they saw a large security door begin to slid shut right in front of them, Matty and Newt both quickly skid to a halt while Rookie was filled with panic that caused him to detach his cable and slid right in between the two still closing security doors right before they finally closed. Newt quickly spoke into her communicator "Rookie! Are you alright!?" Rookie nodded as he stood up straight and stared at the closed security door "Y- Yeah I'm fine. But it looks like I'm trapped in here." he then turned around and saw that he was inside of some kind of narrow hallway filled with nothing but "Oh.. God." it was filled with nothing but torture cells.

Suddenly Rouge's voice came over the communicator "Wait, Rookie. Which cell block are you in?" Rookie looked around the area and saw the name of the cell block printed on the security door in bold letters "I'm in cell block 4."

"Rookie! That's the cell block Sonic's captured in! You need to hurry before Eggman locks the block down completely!" Rookie nodded before he quickly began to run forwards as Aero-Chasers began to fly after him. Once they got in front of him they spun around to face him and they fired their large lasers at him, Rookie dodged the lasers and continued to run forwards while sirens continued to blare all around him, he continued to dodge the Aero-Chasers' lasers when he suddenly saw that the security doors in front of him began to slide close, he started to panic, he wouldn't be fast enough to slip in between the two doors, but he had to be, he could practically fell Sonic at this point, he had to save him. Suddenly an Aero-Chaser fired a laser at Rookie, the laser grazed his leg which scared him enough to cause him to trip over himself and fall flat on his face, he quickly scrambled up onto his feet and used his Wispon to take out the Aero-Chasers that had been harassing him, once they had been taken out he quickly scrambled forwards hoping desperately that he'd be able to slip in between the security doors, sadly, he was too late, the doors slid close right in front of him and he skid to a halt before slamming his fists against the door "NO!" then the voice of Matty came over his headset "Rookie? What's wrong?" Rookie sighed as he said "I failed Matty, the cell block's doors slid closed right in front of me." he took his hands off of the door and picked up his Wispon right as Bunnie's voice came over his headset "Rookie, ah know that it must hurt knowing that you failed. But we can still save Sonic, and we can only do that right if you make your way back to the shuttle, we gotta regroup with the rest of the soldiers on board the station." Rookie nodded "Yeah, I'm on my way." he then turned around and saw a vent hanging over his head, he used his grappling hook to pull the vent's grate off and then to climb up into it.


	6. Escape the Egg Gate

4:16 P.M. The Egg Station, Cell Block 4, Sonic's Torture Cell.

* * *

Sonic groaned slightly as he attempted to open his eyes. His entry body ached, his head was spinning, and he could barely feel his legs, which was a feeling he never liked period, he could also hear the faint sound of what must've been alarms blaring in the distance, suddenly the cell's door opened up and Zavok walked into the room, he was holding some kind of small metal device that almost looked like a TV remote "This is the end, Sonic."

The Hedgehog coughed as he opened his mouth "O- Oh hey! S- Sounds like a party's started! W- Wanna let me go and join in? N- No? Of course not. you hate fun."

He coughed out those last words before Zavok held the remote like object up "Eggman wants you dead. And that's what I'm here to do."

Sonic tried to do his famous cocky grin but he was in to much pain to actually do it properly so it looked like a forced smile you'd see in an awkward picture "R- Really? Egghead doesn't want to take me out himself? That's new."

Zavok pointed the remote at Sonic and lifted his thumb up to press a red button on the remote like object, but before he could the facility suddenly shook as the lights in the cell block dimmed and its artificial gravity was deactivated. The sudden shaking of the facility prevented Zavok from pressing that red button, and once the gravity was disabled he began to float off of the ground. The remote slipped out of his hand and floated over to Sonic, who was able to grab onto the remote as it passed by his restrained hand, Sonic looked at the various buttons on the remote before saying "Oh! W- Would you look at this! There's a button here that says 'adrenaline boost' I won't question why Egghead even put that on here but, I'm not really complaining."

Sonic the pressed the button he was talking about and suddenly his restraints hit him with an electrical current that'd force his mind to ignore his body's pain, and to boost his adrenaline, like the button said. Sonic shook his head "Wow! That packed a kick!"

Then suddenly the lights in the room returned to their normal brightness before the gravity turned back on, Zavok fell to the floor and as he picked himself up he looked over to Sonic and saw the Hedgehog's restraints suddenly come off of him "The end huh?"

He then got out of his chair and stood over Zavok "Let's see you try something now that I'm free."

Zavok growled at Sonic before finally standing up "Foolish Hedgehog. Getting out of your chains does not make you free. Now come, and face the inevitable."

Sonic rolled his eyes before suddenly speeding towards Zavok and sliding in between his legs. The Zeti turned around as Sonic said "The only thing inevitable here is my foot kicking your butt!"

Zavok tried to shoulder charge into Sonic but the Hedgehog quickly jumped out of the way before running past Zavok and out into the circular cell block that the solitary confinement cells were attached to. Sonic came to a stop once he saw that the exit to the cell block was already closed, he turned around to see Zavok standing in the center of a large, circular, metal hatch that sat in the middle of the room, in his hand was that remote "The only way out is through that door. And the only way to open it is with this remote."

Sonic stepped forwards "Then whey don't you hand it over, or do you want that butt kicking now?"

The Zeti then suddenly tossed the remote away before jumped up into the air, and at the same time the hatch opened up, Sonic braced himself to be sucked out into space, but thanks to an energy field the suction of space didn't affect the facility, but that didn't stop Zavok from falling through the field and out into space. Sonic was pretty shocked to just see Zavok fall out into space "That.. Was easy."

He was about to try and go find that remote when suddenly he heard a loud buzzing sound come from that hole where the hatch used to be, as he turned around he saw Zavok begin to rise up out of the hole, but that wasn't all, he was also ridding on top of a massive yellow and black colored Buzz Bomber. The Zeti bumped his fists together twice before letting out a loud roar. That circular hatch then slid closed as Zavok said "I can't wait to see how long you last against this."

Sonic began to run towards Zavok as he said "Come out and fight me yourself, and I'll mop you up real quick!"

Zavok growled at Sonic from on top of the Buzz Bomber "Impudent runt! I'm going to savor watching you suffer at my hands."

Suddenly three regular sized Buzz Bombers, just, appeared in front of Sonic. The Hedgehog jumped up into the air and Homing Attacked into each of them and as he landed back on the ground the Buzz Bomber's six legs all pointed at Sonic before firing bright yellow lasers out of their ends, Sonic quickly dodged the lasers before trying to Homing Attack into Zavok, but that Bomber quickly spun around and hit Sonic out of the air with one of its large purple wings, as Sonic picked himself up off of the ground he saw that several Buzz Bombers all appeared around him in a circle, they then all charged towards Sonic but he quickly jumped up into the air and curled up into a Spin Ball, he just let the Bombers all run into him and destroy themselves, once he landed back down on the ground he was covered in the shadow of the massive Buzz Bomber.

Sonic quickly jumped out of the way before the Bomber smashed down onto the ground. The force of that smash sent Sonic flying up into the air, which gave him the perfect angle to Homing Attack Zavok, but each time Sonic did attack him the Zeti would shoved Sonic away with his arm, that was until the Bomber suddenly dislodged itself out of the ground and caused Zavok to stumble, Sonic took the opportunity to finally attack Zavok while he was distracted. As Sonic bounced off of Zavok the Zeti said "You're not making this easy are you?"

And as Sonic landed back on the ground Zavok continued "No matter. Crushing you will be all the more satisfying!"

Suddenly Buzz Bombers began to appear continuously and they all tried to ram into Sonic, at the same time Zavok's Bomber would try and charge towards Sonic and impale him with its spiked end. As Sonic took out the last Bomber he was yet again covered in Zavok's Bomber's shadow, he quickly rolled out of the way as the Bomber slammed into the ground and sent Sonic flying up into the air, and just like last time Sonic Homing Attacked into Zavok, and just like last time, the Zeti would block most of the Attacks, but unlike last time, the Bomber tried to dislodge itself but failed to actually do it, this did cause Zavok to stumble just like last time and Sonic Homing Attacked into him again.

As Zavok shook his head and recovered from the Homing Attack Sonic landed on the Bomber as well and stood in front of Zavok. The Zeti tried to punch Sonic but the Hedgehog quickly jumped up into the air and Homing Attacked Zavok yet again, once Sonic landed he quickly punched Zavok in the face and followed it up with a kick, then a punch, then more kicks, then even more punches, and all before he hopped up into the air and Homing Attacked Zavok for the last time. The Zeti fell off of the Bomber and onto the ground as Sonic leaped up into the air and cut right through the massive Buzz Bomber, destroying it finally, as Sonic walked away from the wreckage of the massive Bomber he said "That was a blast! Bring some chili dogs next time.. Now then, where's that remote?"

And as he began to look around for it he heard Zavok groan as he got up off of the ground "N- No! How could I lose to the likes of you again?!"

Sonic turned around and faced the injured Zeti "Well let's see, besides the obvious fact that you may be stronger than me, you're not faster than me. There's also that little thing of, you joined Eggman AGAIN! Like seriously? Why did you join him again? You and the Deadly Six hated Egghead because he enslaved you guys with that.. Conch.. thing." Zavok tried to walk over to Sonic but suddenly a surge of pain coursed through his body. Zavok fell to one knee as he gripped his side "I- It wasn't a choice I made easily, or a choice I wanted to make.. Period."

Sonic cocked his head to the side slightly out of confusion "What do you mean?"

Zavok sighed "I was out in the Lost Hex, practicing, when suddenly Zeena came running to me. She said that- That Zazz had been killed.. He was killed by that masked _MONSTER_ , so me and the remaining Six all tired to take down that monster, but.. Something happened, it was to fast for me to even comprehend, and- and before I knew it, I was the only one left alive... Sonic, it gave me a choice, either I die there weak and defeated. Or I join Eggman and help him conquer the world, I chose to live, at the time I thought I was saving myself, that I could one day turn against Eggman and that monster, that I could kill it and get revenge for my fellow Zeti.. But now I know, no one can kill it, not even Eggman. So ever since I made that choice, I've regretted it, I now wish that I had died there in the Hex with my fellow Zeti.. I am now the last Zeti alive."

Sonic's eyes widened in complete shock "Z- Zavok. I- I-"

"Don't spare me any sympathy, I was weak and I failed.. You've earned your freedom, go."

Zavok then pointed in the direction of the remote before he sucked up his pain and stood up off of the ground. Sonic walked over to the remote and picked it up, he inspected the remote and saw a button labeled "evacuate" Sonic pressed the button and the cells in the area all opened up and the circular hatch opened up which let a transport shuttle fly into the cell block, the prisoners all ran into the transport and they ran past Zavok, Sonic watched as Zavok walked away from the massive gathering of prisoners. Sonic suddenly ran over to Zavok and began to lead the Zeti towards the shuttle "Wh- What are you doing?"

Sonic shrugged "Sympathy, and heroism make you do crazy things."

He then helped Zavok onto the shuttle, who took up the last open spot in it, before Sonic stepped off of the ramp "Now then, that shuttle should take you back down to Earth, I hope, so once you're down there lay low and keep out of Eggman's sight. Also, don't try anything on the way down, you maybe stronger than those former-prisoners, but they outnumber you and have access to Egghead grade weapons."

Zavok glanced over his shoulder and at the prisoners while Sonic pressed another button that opened up the exit doors. Before Sonic left the cell block Zavok yelled out "Wait! Sonic!"

The Hedgehog stopped and turned around "Yeah?"

The Zeti sighed "At the very top of the Egg Station, there's a docking bay that has a shuttle that can take you back down to the planet's surface."

Sonic nodded "You got it!"

He then turned back around and ran out of the cell block.

* * *

5:17 P.M. Egg Station, Cell Block 5.

* * *

As Sonic ran through a hallway sirens blared all around him "Guess they found out I escaped, oh well."

Suddenly the ceiling over him began to lower down in an attempt to squash him "Time to kiss this yawnfest goodbye!"

He then boosted out of the hall and as he left it several security doors slammed shut behind him before the airlock opened up and he jumped out into space. He expected to become weightless and just float around, but the Egg Station's artificial gravity somehow stretched outside so Sonic was still affected by his own weight, he then landed on what looked like train rails that headed down into a separate area of the Egg Station and looked over to his left "Whoa! We're a lot farther off planet than I thought! Guess anyone that crosses Eggman gets a one way trip high up into space."

Suddenly Buzz Bombers flew out of hatches in front of Sonic and the Hedgehog quickly jumped off of the rail and Homing Attacked into them before landing back on the rail "No way I'm sticking around here! There's hardly anything to run on!"

Sonic continued to grind along the rail and into that new area of the Egg Station, which looked to be a giant cargo bay, before jumping off of the rail and running along the top of a stationary yellow freight train. Once he reached the end of the train he jumped up high into the air as Egg Pawns noticed him and began to fire at him. Sonic then Stomped onto the ground and boosted forwards, and the shock wave of the boost blasted the Pawns away before they exploded upon impact with each other or anything else that was in the massive cargo bay, Sonic quickly drifted to his right and ran through a narrow hallway "I don't do well in tight spaces. I'll pay back Eggman for putting me in this jam latter!"

Suddenly the Station shook and an airlock opened up. Sonic was sucked out into space and three Aero-Chasers flew out of the airlock behind him, and as for Sonic, at one moment he was weightless, then the next gravity returned to him and he landed on the side of the Egg Station, he looked up and saw a brand new Egg Fleet surrounding the Egg Station "Man, Egghead's made another Fleet? Oh well, I'll be outta here in no time though. Just wait and see Eggman!"

The three Aero-Chasers then opened up their large laser cannon arms and began to fire at him. Sonic sidestepped out of the way of the Chasers' lasers before boosting again. He had to find a way to get up to that hanger Zavok told him about, but he could turn around, those Aero-Chasers would shoot him in the back if he did, that when suddenly the Chasers closed their cannon arms and flew away before a small fleet of drone space planes started to fly towards him, Sonic grinned before he jumped up and landed on one of the planes, it took Sonic high up the Egg Station, but as it passed by a certain area of the Station laser turrets popped out of the facility and began to fire at the space plane Sonic was on "Man, they're packing a lot of fire power. Still, doesn't matter if they can't land their shots! Here goes nothing!"

He then jumped off of the plane he was on and onto another one. The plane he was once on was destroyed by the turrets and he could feel the one he was currently on begin to take sever damage as well, he then jumped to another plane before the other one exploded, the plane he was now on flew high up above the Egg Station and Sonic was able to get a good look at the entrance for the shuttle hanger, sadly due to him becoming distracted hundreds of turrets all charged up and fired at the plane Sonic was on. The plane exploded and sent Sonic fly through the air and towards the hanger, Sonic quickly spun around in the air before he truly entered the hanger and gravity returned to normal for him, Sonic rolled across the ground and quickly jumped up before running towards a large shuttle sitting at the very back of the hanger.

* * *

5:18 P.M. Above the Shuttle Hanger.

* * *

Rookie kicked down a vent grate and quickly dropped out of it and landed on the metal floor bellow him. He groaned slightly as he stood up and looked over to his right and saw Matty running over to him "Rookie!"

The red Wolf walked over to Matty who suddenly pulled him into a hug "M- Matty, something wrong?"

She shook her head before letting go of him and stepping back "No, nothing's wrong. I was just trying to comfort you."

Rookie grinned slightly "Thanks."

She nodded before Newt came running over. Matty turned to face her Bear girlfriend "What's up?"

Newt then suddenly began to lead Rookie and Matty towards the shuttle they had used to board the Egg Station "Sally's run into so engine problems, Eggman's trying to hack into the shuttle's system and disable them. So we gotta by her and Nicole, who's hacked into Eggman's system, some time."

Matty nodded before pulling out her Wispon "What are we gonna smash?"

Newt stopped and they all looked at the end of the hanger "We're smashing them."

Suddenly a door burst open and Egg Pawns, Buzz Bombers, Moto Bugs, all came flooding into the hanger, but Rookie saw something that made him begin to be filled with fear, one thing that made him take in a sharp breath when he saw it, the hoard of robots were being lead by Metal Sonic, who was staring right at Rookie.

Newt and Rookie took out their Wispons and began to charge towards the robot hoard, who all did the same. Metal Sonic blasted off towards Rookie who pulled his Wispon's trigger, but the robot quickly dodged the stream of fire before smashing into Rookie's side, which sent him flying towards the other end of the hanger, as Rookie attempted to stand back up he saw that Metal Sonic was heading towards the shuttle, Rookie quickly fired his grappling hook at Metal Sonic, who glanced over its shoulder, stepped out of the grappling hook's way, and grabbed onto the cable, it then yanked on the cable and forced Rookie over to it. Once Rookie was close enough Metal Sonic let go of the cable and punch Rookie into the ground next to the robot, the red Wolf groaned as he opened his eyes again only to be met with the sight of Metal Sonic's lifeless, and robotic red eyes staring down at him, it reached down and picked Rookie up by one of his combat pouches, it then lifted Rookie up into the air and pulled its other arm back preparing to stab its sharp fingers through Rookie's throat.

Matty spun around and took out a group of Egg Pawns with her Wispon, but as she spun she saw Rookie be picked up by Metal Sonic "NEWT!"

The Bear glanced over to Matty "What?!"

The Dog then pointed at Rookie "WE GOTTA SAVE HIM!"

Newt smashed her hammer through a cubed Pawn before attempting to run towards Rookie, but a different Egg Pawn reached out and grabbed onto her leg causing her to be tripped over by it. Matty tried to run over to Newt but a Buzz Bomber fired at her head and just barely missed her, only grazing the tip of one of her dyed bangs, as Matty backed away from the energy shot she bumped into an Egg Pawn who then grabbed onto her and threw her to the ground. Rookie tried to pulled Metal Sonic's hand off of his pouch but the hand wouldn't budge, then suddenly the robot's other arm made a clicking sound before it suddenly jabbed itself at Rookie's throat, he closed his eyes and tried to brace himself for the attack when suddenly he felt himself fall to the ground, Rookie opened his eyes and saw that Metal Sonic wasn't near him, instead it was on the ground a few feet away to Rookie's left, and Metal was missing an arm, Rookie looked down and saw that the missing arm was still gripped onto his pouch.

Suddenly something landed in front of Rookie, that something was blue, with red shoes, white gloves, and green eyes. Sonic reached his hand out to Rookie "Easy there! Everything's cool. I'm guessing you guys are here to rescue me?"

Rookie nodded as Sonic helped him stand up "Y- Yeah, we have."

Sonic grinned "Can't tell you how much I appreciate it, it's been awhile since I've seen a friendly face."

Rookie also grinned slightly "Same for me.. Oh! Listen we need to go help Matty and Newt, uh, the other two! Come on!"

Rookie then began to run towards Newt and Matty while Sonic turned around and began to follow him "You got it! Leave Metal to me!"

Sonic then boosted forwards and smashed into Metal Sonic. Rookie used his grappling hook to pull his Wispon over to him before pulling its trigger and destroying several robots, Newt picked up her Wispon and smashed an Egg Pawn's head in, while Rookie jumped up into the air and Wire Attacking the Egg Pawn that stood over Matty, the Dog and Bear both stood up as Sonic jumped up into the air and kicked Metal Sonic in the head. Rookie, Newt, and Matty all worked together to thin out the robot hoard while Sonic ducked underneath Metal Sonic's arm as it swiped past Sonic. The Hedgehog quickly jumped up and punched the back of Metal's head "Come on you pile of scrap! Show me what you got!"

The robot turned around and began to emit various angry beeps at Sonic, which only caused the Hedgehog to chuckle "Man! Did Egghead take your voice away again?"

Metal Sonic began to charge up its chest beam and Sonic, quickly, as well as suddenly, kicked Metal Sonic's chest reactor. The robot staggered backwards as its own energy core began to melt down, Sonic stepped away from Metal before its body began to convulse randomly and the robot exploded from the inside out, Sonic ran towards Rookie, Newt, and Matty as they took out the last of the robot hoard "Good job! I barely even know who you guys are, but you did awesome!"

Matty took her goggles off of her eyes and put them on top of her head before she pulled her bandana off of her mouth "Name's Matty! The Bear's Newt, and the Wolf's Rookie! We're apart of the Resistance and we're here to save you!"

Suddenly Matty's communicator went off and the voice of Sally came over it "Hey, you guys still in one piece?"

Matty nodded "Yeah we're good."

Sonic chuckled "Oh sure, don't even bother to ask how I am."

The voice of Sally then said "Sonic?! You're already here?! Uh, ahem, I may be happy that you're alive, but we have to get off of this facility as fast as we can. I can't get any kind of signal back to Resistance HQ, and I'm not getting any kind of signal from them."

Sonic nodded before the four of them began to run towards the shuttle, and as they ran Sonic said "Your concern is touching, lady."

Before he sped off towards the shuttle and the other three used their grappling hooks to quickly follow behind Sonic. They all entered the shuttle as its entrance slid close. As the four calmed down from the excitement of the previous series of events the voice of Sally came over the shuttle's PA system "Sonic, Rookie, Newt, Matty. I need you four up here on the bridge."

Sonic shrugged before he and the other three began to make their way up to the bridge. The doors of the bridge slid open and they entered the room, and at the same time Sally slammed her fist on top of a computer monitor "AGH! DANG IT!"

Sonic walked over to Sally "What's up?"

She sighed before looking over to Sonic "The engines won't start, and I can't even bring the shuttle's own artificial gravity online."

Sonic leaned against the chair Sally was sitting in "That can't be good. Have you tried rerouting the shuttle's electrical system so that the system is all kinds of confusing to Egghead."

Sally raised an eyebrow in confusion "How.. Do you know.. Know how to do that?"

Sonic shrugged "What? I can't be fast and smart? But for real, I built the original Tornado and took care of it so I know somethings about this kind of stuff."

Sally looked away from Sonic and began to reroute the shuttle's electrical system, just like Sonic said. Once she rerouted all of the systems the engines suddenly came to life and the shuttle began to take off. Sally looked over to Sonic, a surprised look on her face "Wow, that worked." Sonic chuckled slightly "Yeah it did, I was the one who came up with the idea." Sally rolled her eyes which caused Sonic to laugh. Rookie walked over to Sally and Sonic "Did Bunnie and Antoine make it aboard?" Sally nodded as the shuttle began to fly out of the hanger "Yes they did. The two of them are actually in the cargo bay, Antoine is nursing Bunnie's wounds right now." Matty walked over to them as well "What about Nicole?" Sally began to dug something out of her pant pocket while she said "She hasn't made it aboard yet, and I don't plan on leaving without here." she then pulled the something she was fishing around for, which was a communicator, and turned it on "Nicole, we're leaving, get back to the hanger now." there was a moment of static and what sounded like heavy breathing before the voice of Nicole came out of the communicator "No wait! I've got a plan!" Sally sighed "No, I'm not leaving without you!"

"Sally trust me. Fly the shuttle over to airlock nine, that's where I'm heading now."

Sally groaned before responding with "Fine.. Just be safe."

"No problem."

Nicole then turned off her communicator and Sally shoved hers into her pocket. The shuttle rocketed out of the hanger and began to circle around the Egg Station, Sonic suddenly tapped Sally's shoulder as he pointed out of the front window of the shuttle "There it is! Airlock nine!"

As Sally looked over to the airlock its doors slid open and everyone in the shuttle's bridge saw that Nicole was in the airlock. Sally grabbed onto the shuttle's controls "We're going to fast to stop in time, we're gonna have to slow down and circle back around."

Sonic began to make his way out of the bridge "Don't worry about the shuttle's speed, I got Nicole's entrance covered."

He then ran out of the bridge and towards the shuttle's entrance, Sally grumbled to herself as she turned the shuttle so that the entrance would be facing the open airlock. The shuttle's entrance door slid open as the shuttle began to approach the airlock, Sonic grabbed onto the side of the door and stuck his arm out of the door, then suddenly Nicole jumped out of the airlock and Sonic grabbed onto her arm before pulling her into the shuttle. Sonic lead Nicole into the bridge and Sally ran over to the Lynx "Nicole! Don't ever do that again!"

She then pulled Nicole into a hug and the Lynx returned it "I'm sorry but it was the only way I could get out without putting you guys in even more danger."

Sonic looked over to Nicole "Why would be in even more danger?"

Nicole and Sally let go of each other before Nicole answered "I helped you escape the Egg Station by messing with the facility's artificial gravity."

Sonic grinned "In that case, thank you. That was some experience I had out there!"

Suddenly, the shuttle began to slow down as its engines suddenly began to give out again, and at the same time a strange pulsating, and deep sound began to come over the PA system. Both Sonic and Rookie knew that sound, but Sonic was the only one to say "That sound again."

Sally ran over to one of the shuttle bridge's chairs and sat down on it. As Sally tried to turn the engine back on as she said "What's going on?"

Nicole ran over to Sally's side so that Nicole could inspect one of the monitors next to Sally "I don't know what's going on, but whatever is going on, its happening over there."

Nicole then pointed at a large empty space several hundred feet ahead of them, that sound began to grow louder, and louder until suddenly, in a bright flash of reddish orange light, that was so bright that it caused everyone to shield their eyes from the flash. And once they looked back out the shuttle's window, they saw that the massive, orbital battle station called the Death Egg had appeared in that empty space in front of the shuttle, Sonic yelled out "THE DEATH EGG?!"

He then ran over to Sally "GET US OUT OF HERE!"

Sally grabbed onto the shuttle's controls as Nicole turned the shuttle's engines back on, Sally then aimed the shuttle towards the Earth and rocketed towards it, at the same time Nicole yelled out "Wait! What about the Chaotix?! Did Espio make it out of the Egg Station?!"

Sally nodded "Yes they did! They had to get out of the facility before us so they could get Charmy's injuries treated."

Nicole let out a sigh of relief as the shuttle began the process of breaking through the planet's atmosphere.


	7. Return to Green Hill

5:48 P.M. Earth, over the Northern Isle, the Chemical Plant, the Space Port.

* * *

The shuttle that the Special Forces, Rookie, Sonic, Newt, and Matty were riding on broke through the atmosphere and began to flying down towards the Space Port. Even though the shuttle's artificial gravity was still functioning the shuttle still shook due to its reentry speed, and that shacking still affected the ship's crew, Rookie stumbled forwards slightly as he walked over to Sally and said "Were going back to the Chemical Plant?!"

Sally was trying her best to slow the shuttle's speed down which forced her to groan out an answer in between her clenched teeth "Yes, we are! The shuttle doesn't have landing gear, the only way we landed in the Egg Station was because of a magnetic lock in its hanger, and we can't land anywhere else on Earth because the Space Port is the only place on the planet that has high speed landing gear installed in its runways!"

Everyone in the bridge heard a loud crashing sound come from the shuttle's cargo hanger, which prompted Sonic to say "Do we even know what this thing was shipping?"

Sally shrugged slightly "I think it's just.. Maintenance stuff.. I think."

Nicole had a death grip on the back of Sally's chair and she had her other hand placed on top of her own stomach, trying hard to not puke "W- We don't s- seem to be s- slowing down!"

Sonic nodded "She's right, heck, we seem to be speeding up!"

Suddenly the shuttle broke the sound barrier as if the ship was trying to emphasize Sonic's point. Anyone that wasn't Sonic strained themselves to not pass out, or to not throw up on the spot. As for Sonic, he just had a grin on his face, as the shuttle began to get closer to a landing ramp and a massive magnetic clamp suddenly reached out to grab onto the underside of the ship, Sally gave up trying to slow the ship down and instead she yelled out "Brace for impact!"

Before the shuttle hit the ramp, the clamp grabbed onto the underside of it, and the shuttle began to head down the sloped ramp, not losing any speed as it did. Antoine, who was carrying Bunnie in his arms, narrowly dodged a falling cargo crate as the shuttle barreled down the landing ramp, they left the cargo bay and ran into the bridge, once they did the shuttle came to the end of the ramp and it quickly broke of the magnetic ramp and skid across the asphalt of the Space Port, Sonic quickly yelled out "We're gonna crash into the ocean!"

And just like he said the shuttle then broke through the tall chain link fence that surrounded the Space Port, and it skid across the snow covered beach before its front side crashed into the ocean. Due to the shuttle's own momentum and the sudden stop because of the crash into the ocean it lifted up into the air, and landed upside down. The shuttle began to sink down into the wet sand underneath it and water began to leak into the ship, Sally quickly disabled the shuttle's artificial gravity and everyone fell onto the ceiling below them, Sonic helped Antoine picked Bunnie back up before everyone began to run towards the shuttle's exit, Newt opened the shuttle's door and Sonic turned around to face the group "Okay we're gonna have to jump out one by one."

Everyone nodded before Sonic let Antoine jump out of the shuttle, Bunnie still in his arms, he landed in the cold ocean water and began to walk towards the beach, suddenly the ship shuttered as it sank deeper into the wet sand, next was Nicole who jumped out of the ship and once she landed in the water she puked into it, then Newt and Matty jumped out of the ship and began to run towards the beach while Nicole herself began to recover from her motion sickness and make her way over to the beach. Sonic faced Sally "You're up, uh, miss?"

"Sally Acorn."

She then jumped out of the ship and Sonic fallowed her. Once he landed in the ocean the ship let out a metallic groan before its front side was completely swallowed up by the wet sand, and the rest of it followed a moment latter, the only thing left sticking out from the ship was two of its own back engines. Sonic shivered slightly as he walked onto the beach and shook the water that was stuck to his legs off "Wow this is cold!"

Rookie was shivering much more than Sonic "I- I know r- right?!"

Meanwhile Sally was trying to get a message back to the Resistance "Knuckles? Amy? Do you read me?"

Nicole walked over to Sally and began to stare at the Chipmunk's communicator "Is it waterlogged?"

Sally brought the communicator up to her ear and shook it around "No, doesn't sound like it is."

She then took it away from her ear and tried to re-tune its radio signal when suddenly a staticy message from Knuckles came out of it "S- S- S- Special Forces. D- Do you c- c- c- come in?"

Sally grew a big smile "HA! Yes! Knuckles come in! This is Agent Prince, we've saved Sonic from the Egg Station and we're stranded at the Chemical Plant."

While she talked Sally continued to tune the radio's signal which slowly got rid of the static in Knuckle' message "Sonic's still alive! That's the b- best new's I've heard all d- day!"

Sonic walked over to Sally and said "Yup, that's right Knux, I'm alive."

Then suddenly the voice of Amy came over the communicator "Sonic! I'm so glad!"

Knuckles sighed "Hold up Amy, we're all h- happy Sonic is alive. But He, as well as the Special Forces, are stranded on the Northern Isle."

Sally then said "Yes, we are, and we were hoping that you could send something to take us back to South Island."

"S- Sorry Sally but we can't spare a- any more t- transports right now."

Rookie suddenly spoke up "Wait! We came in on a boat, maybe its still here!"

Knuckles' voice then said "Rookie's r- right, maybe the boat i- is still there!"

Sonic began to walk away from the group "I'll go check around the place."

Before boosting away, kicking up snow covered, wet sand as he did. Nicole brushed the sand that had landed on her top of her head off when suddenly Sonic ran back over to the group "Boats still here.. Some how."

The voice of Knuckles then said "Great! Hurry up and t- take the boat back so you c- can get S- Sonic out of danger fast!"

Sally nodded "Yes sir."

She then turned off the communicator and the group began to walk towards the front of the island. While they walked Matty snuggled herself into Newt in an attempt to warm herself up, Nicole picked small shells out of her fur, Sally readjusted some the bandages that was on her arms, Rookie cleaned off his glasses, Antoine continued to carry Bunnie in his arms when she suddenly said "You know Twan ah can still walk, its just my arm that's injured."

Antoine nodded "I know that, but it is much safer for you to be carried in my arms."

Normally Bunnie would protest this kind of mentality but there was just something about Antoine that made her think differently, so instead she awkwardly crossed her arms over her chest, and while that was going on Sonic just casually whistled and rested his hands against the back of his head while they all walked on the beach, eventually they all reached the boat that had been used to transport Newt, Matty, Rookie, and the Chaotix to the Chemical Plant. Sonic waited out side of the ship while everyone got on board. Before Sally stepped onto the ship she looked over to Sonic and said "Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for helping Nicole back at the Egg Station. It meant a lot to me and her."

Sonic shrugged "It's what I do."

Sally nodded slightly as she grew a small smile and finally got on board the ship. Sonic looked into the boat "Everyone ready?"

The passengers all nodded before Sonic moved over to the front of the ship and put his hands on it "Hold on!"

He then used his speed to suddenly shove the ship off of the beach and into the water, everyone inside of the boat lurched backwards once they were shoved out into the sea, Sonic dusted his hands off before jumping up into the air and landing on the deck of the ship, he then walked below deck where he found the rest of the group "Anyone know how to drive a boat?"

Antoine set Bunnie down in a comfortable-ish chair before stepping forwards and saying "I know how to pilot a boat."

Sonic stepped out of the doorway before saying "Then the ship's all yours.. What- what is your name?"

As Antoine passed by Sonic he grinned cockily ever so slightly as he said "Antoine D'Colette."

The Coyote then walked up the stairs and began to make his way to the ship's controls. Sonic sat down on a chair next to the doorway that lead to the stairs before saying "So, I know the names of the Bear, the Wolf, the Dog, and the Coyote. But I don't know you two's names."

He motioned at Nicole, and Bunnie before he began to bounce his leg up and down in place to burn off some excess energy. Nicole was the fist to say "My name is Nicole the Lynx."

Bunnie nodded "And my name's Bunnie Rabbough."

Sonic grinned slightly "It's nice to meat you guys."

And suddenly the ship lurched backwards as it began to sail away from the Northern Isle. A few minutes after they left the island Sonic yawned and stretched his arms out "If you guys wouldn't mind. I haven't had a proper nap since Egghead's goons defeated me back in the city."

Bunnie gasped slightly "You haven't slept since then? That was almost a year ago!"

Sonic chuckled slightly "Then I guess I better catch up on my Z's shouldn't I?"

He yawned again before bringing his arms up and putting them behind his head and closing his eyes, a moment latter Sonic fell asleep and began to snore slightly. Rookie inspected his Wispon for any kind of damage when suddenly Matty nudged his shoulder with her elbow "Hey, Rookie."

He looked over to her as she began to untie her bandana "Did you see the way Bunnie stared at Antoine back on the beach?"

Rookie shook his head "No, I wasn't paying much attention to them at the time."

Matty leaned over to Rookie and whispered to him "Let me just tell you, the way she was looking at him was the same way I looked at Newt during our first date."

Rookie furrowed his brow in confusion "What do you mean?"

Matty shrugged "It was like. A look of confusion, and awkwardness. But confusion and awkwardness that was born from love."

Rookie nodded slowly "Ooookay?"

Matty chuckled slightly as she leaned away from Rookie "It was just an interesting observation I made."

She then finally took off her bandana and tied it around her skirt's belt. Once Matty untied her bandana it let Rookie see that she had a big scar on her neck "Whoa, Matty where did that come from?"

Matty sighed as she touched her scar "I got it a day or two after Eggman made it to Spagonia. I was running through the city trying my best to avoid those Egg Titans when I suddenly ran into that masked monster. To put it frankly and quickly, that monster attacked me, I was able to escape it with my life but as you can see. I suffered some damage."

Rookie swallowed a lump in his throat, he wasn't sure if he should tell them about his own encounter with that masked Jackal, if he did they might think he was a coward, that he was weak, but before he could make that decision Nicole suddenly screamed as she pulled a small crab out of her head fur. Sally grabbed onto the tiny crab and ran up to the deck of the ship and tossed it into the water, she let out a sigh of relief as she leaned against the deck's railing, a moment latter Sonic walked over to her and leaned against the section of railing next to Sally "Hey."

She didn't look at him but she did say "Hey."

There was a long moment of silence between the two of them, they just stared out at the open water, the at the orange tinted water of the setting sun, the ocean was the only part of the world that Eggman couldn't mess up majorly, other than dumping oil into it, but for some reason the Doctor hadn't done that yet. Suddenly Sally looked over to Sonic "Did Nicole's scream wake you up?"

Sonic nodded "Yeah, what was the deal with that?"

Sally grinned slightly before she giggled and said "She found a crab in her head fur.. And she isn't a big fan of crabs."

Sonic chuckled slightly "That's one weird fear."

Sally stared at Sonic a sly grin on her face "Say's the guy who's afraid of water. The place crabs live in."

Sonic shook his head "I may be scared of water but I have a reason for it. We Hedgehogs have trouble with water, our quills get really soggy and heavy so it weighs us down, and as for me, my shoes tend to get really stiff when they get really wet so it makes swimming hard."

Sally nodded "That's a better reason for being scared of water than Nicole's reason for being scared of crabs."

Sonic raised an eye brow in confusion "What's her reason?"

Sally sighed "When she was younger she saw a Yeti Crab."

Sonic nodded "Eh, it's a good enough reason for me."

Sally also nodded before they both stared out at the open waters again. After several silent minutes Sonic asked Sally "How'd you meat Nicole, and how do you know so much about here?"

Sally grinned again before saying "When I was younger my parents sent me to a private school, I didn't really like it there, place was to stuffy for my liking. But about the only breath of fresh air I got there was Nicole, we became close friends fast, and we've been friends ever since."

Sonic nodded "That's kinda like how I met Tails."

Sally looked over to Sonic "Really?"

He nodded "Yeah, after my first adventure my life felt stuffy. I just couldn't find any exciting action anywhere, so when I heard the news that a young Fox went missing on West Side Island I went looking for him there. Which is when I met Tails, that little guy was my breath of fresh air for my adventures."

Sally smiled warmly at Sonic "Looks like we're not so different."

Sonic nodded "It sure does seem that way."

The two then continued to stare at the ocean and every so often they'd talk to each other over various things, but it was never really anything important, just fluffy, warn and fun happy stuff that gave the needed boost to Sally's spirits for he to let more hope into her heart, the hope that they could actually win this war.

* * *

5:49 P.M. South Island, Green Hill Zone.

* * *

Blue and Tails walked along a checkerboard pathway silently when suddenly Blue looked over to Tails and said "If you wouldn't mind telling me, how'd your me get defeated?"

Tails' face soured suddenly and Blue felt a small pit form in his stomach. But Tails still answered "It was just a normal day. Eggman was launching an attack on a small country, and Sonic tired to stop him. But... But... Something happened. It was my fault, I told Sonic to come to the city and help take down Eggman, but.. It was my fault, I failed Sonic. My Sonic. And Eggman's monster got him."

Blue stepped in front of Tails and stopped him "Tails, don't beat yourself up over that, sure you may have asked your Sonic to head into the city, and sure what ever Egghead made took him down. But it isn't your fault, if Eggman really has something strong enough to kill a Sonic, he was going to use it no matter where he was. It's not your fault."

Tails nodded as he whipped tears out of his eyes "Y- Yeah. It's not my fault... But now you're here! It's almost like the world needs a Sonic, any Sonic, to keep things in balance. And if we're able to defeat Eggman this war will be over!"

Blue grinned "Yeah! That's the way you should be thinking Tails!"

The Fox grinned widely "Yeah, and if we can figure out the secret to Eggman's power, we might even be able to send you home!"

Blue nodded and grew a big smile "Then let's hurry up and find that base!"

He then turned around and ran farther into the Zone, Tails quickly ran after Blue, using his twin tails to give him a big boost of speed. While Blue ran through the Zone Tails spoke over the Hedgehog's earpiece "Let's see... The base should be near the Mega-Loop. This area is still relatively undamaged but I'm pretty sure there's still some enemies around here."

Blue jumped up into the air and said "Then we better keep our guards up!"

Once he hit the ground he quickly sped off into his Drop Dash. As he rolled across the green grass of the Zone he quickly cut right through a lone Moto Bug that had appeared in front of them before jumping up and returning to a normal run, Tails managed to catch up with Blue and say "Wow! What was that?"

Blue looked over to Tails "What? Your Sonic can't do a Drop Dash?"

Tails shook his head and Blue continued "Alright then. It's a move I came up with after the final Death Egg launch."

Tails nodded when suddenly the two crossed over a wooden bridge that sat over a rushing river, they ran across the bridge when suddenly a Chopper lunged out of the river and burst through the bridge in front of the two. Blue quickly jumped up and crashed through the robot when suddenly another Chopper burst out of the bridge behind Tails, but the Fox was able to quickly spin around and take the robot out with his tails, the two continued forwards, and they both run through a small loop and once they got off of the loop Blue skid to a halt when the section of ground underneath him began to shudder.

Suddenly that patch of ground burst upwards. Blue staggered slightly to try and keep himself on the chunk of land "Tails! What's going on here!?"

Tails inspected the chunk of ground before yelling out a response "Its being lifted up by a jet of sand!"

Blue quickly jumped off of the chunk of ground and suddenly a separate chunk of ground burst upwards and he landed on that "Oh come on!"

He jumped off of that chunk and the same thing happened again "Why?!"

Sonic jumped off of the chunk of ground and unlike last time he was actually able to land on the normal ground. Tails ran over to Blue and the Hedgehog said "I can't be the only one that thinks the ground was trying to keep me away from itself."

Tails shrugged "There's probably a scientific explanation for that thought."

Sonic rolled his eyes and the two returned to running towards the base, they ran across a wooden bridge and at the halfway point the bridge shuddered and the ropes suddenly snapped. The bridge gave-way underneath Blue and he fell into a large cavern, but Tails was able to jump up into the air and fly over to a safe and stable part of ground in front of where the bridge once was, Tails looked over the edge of the ground and down into the cavern "Blue! Are you alright?!"

The Hedgehog picked himself off of the checkerboard stone he had landed on and brushed himself off "Yeah I'm fine! Give me a second and I'll be outta here!"

He then sped forwards and headed deeper into the cavern. Sadly the cavern didn't have an actual entrance or exit. So instead he came to a dead end that was curved upwards, Blue scratched his chin as he came up with a plan, he curled up into ball and charged up his Spin Dash before blasting off towards the cavern wall, he spend up the wall and burst out of its ceiling behind Tails, the Fox ran over to Blue "That was quick!"

Blue grinned "Of course it was quick! I'm a Sonic after all."

The two then returned to running and as they did Blue looked over to his left and saw a massive sea of nothing but sand "Strange. I see desert over there."

Blue looked over to Tails "This is Green Hill, right?"

Tails nodded and Blue continued "Something's wrong. What did your Eggman do to this place?"

Tails sighed "Eggman was able to divert the Zone's entire water supply to his own bases in the area. That's what made the Green Hill Desert."

Blue nodded when suddenly they both saw a massive line of Egg Pawns standing in front of them. Blue quickly jumped up and sped off into his Drop Dash taking out the Egg Pawns with said move and once he did that he came out of his Spin Ball and let Tails catch up, they both looked ahead of themselves and saw that they had reached a large cliff that they could've passed over if Blue hadn't glanced over his shoulder and said to Tails "Follow my lead!"

He then curled up into a Spin Dash and burrowed through the cliff face, and Tails followed after him. The two burst out of the other side of the cliff and just as quickly they burrowed through a different cliff face. Once the other two burst out of that cliff they uncurled from their Spin Balls and stood up, Tails coughed slightly before saying "That was really something else, wasn't it?"

Blue shrugged "You gotta remember Tails, according to my timeline, just last year I traveled around Angel Island via cannons, tunnels, teleporters, and burrowing so it's pretty recent to me."

Tails chuckled slightly "Yeah I guess so."

The two then dusted themselves off and continued to run forwards. They ran across a large bridge that stretched over a river of rushing sand when suddenly the bridge began to collapse behind them and Choppers jumped out of the sand underneath them, the two picked up their paces and Tails yelled out "The base should be close!"

Blue looked over his shoulder "How can you tell?"

Tails then pointed to the top of a mountain next to them, Blue looked up and saw a massive loop at the very top of it "That's the Mega-Loop? THAT THING IS AWESOME!"

The two then stepped off of the bridge and onto a safe patch of ground right as the final log of the wooden bridge fell into the sand underneath it. The two ran through the Zone and suddenly they came to a stop in front of the burning ruins of a wooden shack. Tails ran over to the ruins "The base! What happened to it!?"

Blue followed after Tails "My money's on Egghead."

Tails flew up into the air and landed in the burning ruins, he tried to put out as many fires as he could so he could search through the ruins and Blue tried his best to help Tails, but sadly they just couldn't put out as many of the fires as they needed to. Something caught Tails' attention out of the corner of his eye, that something was a tablet covered in ash and wood chips, he dug it out of the pile of debris and held it up it looked relatively undamaged, so he turned it on and saw that it had the entirety of the base's camera system's database download onto it, Blue walked over to Tails as the Fox fond the most recent video and played it, while the two watched the beginning of the video they left the burning ruins and once they did Tails got down onto one knee so Blue could see it better.

The first two hours of the video just showed various soldiers going about their daily routines in the base, but at the third hour, a hole was blasted in the roof and that masked monster floated into the base, the soldiers in the building tried to fight against the figure but it quickly disarmed them and it suddenly did something that caused the camera to cut out, and that's where the video ended. Tails turned off the tablet and said "Looks like you're right, it was Eggman."

Blue scratched the side of his head "Was that the thing that took down your Sonic?"

Tails nodded "It sure does look scary, but I still haven't seen any kind of evidence that says it can kill a Sonic... Uh, not that I'm saying you're lying to me or anything, I'm just- I guess I was just speaking with my ego, and not with my mouth."

Tails gave Blue a reassuring grin "It's fine you already act like Sonic when I first met him so I know what you're like."

Blue nodded "Good, now then. What do we do now?"

Tails put the tablet down in the grass before standing up and thinking. Luckily it only took Tails a few seconds to come up with a plan "I know! I built a landing strip on a mountain not to faraway from here! And the old Tornado should still be there! If we head up to that mountain we can fly over to the Resistance base in the Mystic Jungle and regroup with them there!"

Blue put his hands on his hips before saying "Sounds like a plan, let's get moving!"

Tails nodded and he lifted himself up into the air and began to lead Blue towards a large mountain that sat off to the left of the ruins of the Green Hill base, but unknown to them the whole time they were there a small metal device began to silently beep once they arrived, and continued to do so even after they left, that device had scanned Blue and it had sent its findings back to Eggman who was in one of his secret bases. Orbot hovered over to Eggman while the Doctor inspected various screens that showed him various Resistance heavy locations around the world, once Orbot reached Eggman it said "Boss, you've received a report from one of your spy drones in Green Hill."

Eggman looked over to his circular robot "What kind of report has it sent me?"

Orbot lifted up and began to transfer the report into the multi-monitor computer Eggman was standing in front of, once the report was completely downloaded Eggman began to read it "...That.. That can't be right."

Orbot looked over to its master "What's not right?"

Eggman began to play around with his mustache will he said "That drone scanned some sort of living organism that has the same brain wavelengths as the Phantom Ruby's own energy wavelengths... Orbot! Ready my Egg Mobile, first thing tomorrow we're going to Green Hill and we're going to find that creature."

He then began to walk away from Orbot and the computer as he silently said to himself "If my hypothesis is true the reason for that organism's brain wavelengths being so similar to the Phantom Ruby's wavelengths is because the creature is inter-dimensional. Ugh, I'm fed up with dimensional shenanigans, so once I do find that creature, I'll going to crush it and hope nothing else follows after it through the Multi-Verse."

He then left the room he was in and began to make his way towards his living quarters in the base.


	8. Destroy the Arsenal Pyramid

6:18 P.M. Green Hill City, Resistance Base.

* * *

Rookie, Newt, and Matty lead Sonic through the brick hallways of the underground base and towards the briefing room. The door slid open and the four of them walked into the room, once they did Sonic was immediately captured into a tight hug from Amy "SONIC! I'M! SO! HAPPY!"

Sonic nodded as he struggled to breath "H- Hey Amy, I- I'm happy t- to be a- alive too, but, I. Can't. Breeeeaaaaath!"

Amy immediately let go of Sonic stepped away from Sonic, and said all at once "I'msosorryIdidn'tmeantobutI'mjustsohappy!"

Sonic grinned slightly as he took in a deep breath "It's okay Amy."

Suddenly Knuckles walked over to Sonic, a grin on his face as well "Sonic, finding you alive is the best news we've had in a year."

But Knuckles sighed and continued bitterly "And here's the bad news. Our intel indicates Eggman's got a weapon factory in Green Hill, its pumping out munitions for his war effort."

Matty suddenly spoke up "A factory? We can't ever hope to take out Eggman's home base in the Metropolis if he's got a factory supplying him."

Knuckles nodded "No kidding. Look, Sonic. I know that you just got back but we're spread thin. Do you think you can take care of this?"

Sonic nodded and Knuckles continued with a hopeful grin on his face "We need that factory in Green Hill destroyed. Take Rookie with you."

Suddenly one of the side doors slid open and Vector walked into the room, and he had heard the whole conversation so he just suddenly jumped in "You sure about this? From what I've heard from Espio the kid was shaking like a leaf the whole time he was on the Egg Station."

Sonic walked over to Rookie "Well that's because its really cold in space, but it should be nice and warm in the factory. Ain't that right Rookie?"

The red Wolf nodded as Knuckles said "It will be when it's burnt to the ground! Sonic you take the lead. Rookie, just make sure you take some good notes."

Sonic popped his knuckles while he said "I've got a year of payback I'm just dying to spend. And this sounds like a good start!"

Knuckles nodded and Sonic as well as Rookie both started to walk out of the room, but before Sonic left he said "Oh, and Knuckles. Egghead's rebuilt the Death Egg, it's hanging over our heads right now. The SF, Matty, and Newt should be able to fill you in. K' see ya'!"

He then finally left the room and Knuckles looked over to Newt and Matty a look of disbelief, but the two just nodded in agreeing with Sonic and Knuckles sighed before they explained the situation Sonic mentioned.

* * *

6:22 P.M. Green Hill Zone, Out Side of the Arsenal Pyramid.

* * *

Sonic ran along side Rookie at a speed that allowed the Hedgehog to stay at the same speed as Rookie. The two ran across a pathway covered in dead grass that was also covered in sand, as they turned a corner and they both saw the massive sandstone pyramid to their right come into view, at the same time the voice of Knuckles came over the two's earpieces "The enemy's factory is inside of the pyramid. I can send in the Special Forces if you don't think you can handle it."

Sonic shook his head "No need! The two of us are more than enough! We'll blitz the place and open up a path for the Resistance."

He looked over to Rookie before saying "Right partner?"

Rookie nodded when suddenly Sonic boosted forwards and headed straight towards a metal bridge that stretched over a rushing river of sand. Rookie's eyes widened in shock as Sonic boosted away, Rookie jumped up into the air and used his grappling hook to chase after Sonic and as the Hedgehog ran across the metal bridge it began to lower in an attempt to prevent Sonic from reaching the other side, luckily Sonic was able to jump off of the bridge and landed on the other side and Rookie landed next to him "Y- You just left me back there!"

Sonic rubbed the back of his head and said "Sorry, it's been awhile since I've worked alongside anyone."

Rookie sighed when suddenly several Egg Pawns began to stomp towards them. Rookie stepped in front of Sonic and used his Wispon to take out the robots. Sonic and Rookie began to run forwards while Sonic said "That was awesome!"

Rookie grinned at them when suddenly the two ran across a metal pipe that suddenly came to a stop in front of them, Rookie grappled onto a pole over to the two's right before he grabbed onto Sonic's arm and the two then drifted across the top of the pipe before they jumped off of it and landed in a testing range for weaponry. Right as they landed hundreds of Egg Pawns all began to fire at them forcing them to hide behind a metal target, Rookie looked at his Wispon then over to Sonic "What are we gonna do?! I- I can't take on that many robots at once!"

Sonic silently thought to himself, he had to come up with a plan, he had to figure a way out of the jam they were stuck in, when suddenly Sonic grew a confident grin "Then it looks like its time for the two of us to team up!"

Rookie was confused, he wasn't sure what Sonic meant when suddenly he grabbed onto Rookie's arm and pulled him out into the open alongside himself "It doesn't matter what obstacles they put in our way. We'll blow past everything they throw at us!"

He began to run forwards dragging Rookie along side him, Sonic then let go of Rookie's arm and grabbed onto his hand, the two continued to speed up, getting faster, and faster, and faster, when suddenly Sonic yelled out "DOUBLE BOOST!"

Then suddenly the two blasted forwards and crashed right through the hundreds of Egg Pawns that stood in front of them. The continued to boost forwards plowing right through anything that stood in their way, whether it be Egg Pawns, or Buzz Bombers. They then suddenly reached the front of the Pyramid and began to scale it, Sonic looked over to Rookie "Yeah! That's how it's done!"

While he spoke Buzz Bombers attempted to stop them but much like the other robots Rookie and Sonic crashed right through them all the while Sonic continued "We've got unstoppable speed and timing! We just have to keep this up!"

Suddenly the two reached the top of the Arsenal Pyramid and jumped high up into the air. Sonic then said into his communicator "Bingo! Found a way in!"

He was staring right at a large opening in the top of the Pyramid and the two began to skydive right into it, while they flew through the opening the voice of Amy came over their earpieces "You should be able to get into the factory through there. But please, stay alert!"

Sonic and Rookie both saw purple lasers began to appear in front of them which caused them to have two different reactions. Rookie reacted with a gasp of fear, but Sonic reacted with a slight chuckle and he said "Heh. This should be fun."

They both continued to skydive through the opening dodging lasers at ever turn, Sonic spun around in the air and Stomped onto the ground, he looked up and saw that Rookie was still falling, Sonic held out his arms and caught Rookie and helped him to stand up right before they both continued forwards into the Pyramid. Egg Pawns turned around and were immediately met with the soles of Sonic and Rookie's shoes. As they ran across a metal catwalk that stretched over a massive manufacturing plant filled with people that were making weapons for Eggman, once Sonic saw that sight he said "So they're building weapons here huh? Making everyone work like robots. It'll be Eggman's turn to get pushed around when I get ahold of him."

Suddenly Egg Pawns fell from the ceiling and landed in front of Sonic and Rookie on the catwalk, Sonic boosted forwards and crashed righ through the robots freeing up their path, but as he boosted towards the last Egg Pawn it aimed its blaster arm the catwalk's supports and fired at them. The energy shot cut through some of the supports and the catwalk suddenly drooped to the side and threw Rookie and Sonic off of it, the two then landed on a massive metal cogwheel and an entire ring of Egg Pawns fell from the ceiling and surrounded the two, Rookie quickly pulled his Wispon's trigger and spun around taking out the ring of Pawns that surrounded them while Sonic picked himself up off of the metal ground "Ow, should've seen that coming."

As he stood up a cogwheel behind them lowered down and the two both saw that if they jumped up onto it they'd be able to get onto a safe pathway, Rookie used his grappling hook to swing himself over to the safe path and Sonic jumped from the wheel he was standing on, then onto the one that had lowered down just before he joined Rookie on the pathway. The path zigged and zagged in front of them so whenever they came to a sharp turn Rookie used his grappling hook to drift together past those turns. While Rookie took the lower path, Sonic jumped up onto another catwalk and ran across it, the two took out any robots that stood in their way as they continued forwards and suddenly Rookie grappled up to Sonic's catwalk and the two continued on wards together. Sonic and Rookie jumped off of the catwalk and landed on the ground below, Sonic quickly spun around and boosted forwards taking out a group of Egg Pawns that had gathered in front of them, Sonic waited for Rookie to run over before the two jumped down the shaft of a lift and while they fell Sonic said "That was a cakewalk!"

And once they landed the voice of Amy came over their communicators "I don't even know why I was worried."

The two ran across a catwalk that stretched over a giant room filled with massive weapons of mass destruction, from giant bombs, to inactive robots. Sonic and Rookie skid to a halt in the middle of the catwalk and looked over the massive manufacturing plant underneath them, Sonic looked over to Rookie "So how are we gonna light this place's fuse?"

Rookie looked at his Wispon "Maybe, we can.. Set off those bombs and take this place out in a big chain reaction."

Sonic shook his head "No that's not gonna work, that could put those poor prisoners in danger.. But maybe one of the bombs has a timer we can set on it, then we can evacuate those prisoners and take the place out at the same time!"

Rookie nodded "Yeah! That's a good plan!"

Sonic grinned slightly before they stood there silently for a moment. After a moment of awkward silence Sonic said "So... Who's gonna set that timer, and who's gonna get the prisoners out of here?"

Rookie then said "I'll deal with the timer, you're faster than me so if you evacuate the prisoners while I set the timer there won't be a threat of something bad happening."

Sonic nodded before he began to head back towards the lift "You got it!"

Rookie nodded before he climbed over the side of the catwalk and jumped down to the manufacturing plant bellow. He quickly used his grappling hook to slow his fall and he safely landed on the ground before running over to a bomb that wasn't stuck on a giant conveyor belt, he inspected the outside shell of the stationary bomb and he eventually found a panel at the back of it, Rookie opened up the panel and began to set the timer for when it should detonate "Uh... Three minutes should do, right?"

He then finished imputing the time before grappling up to the catwalk and running back towards the lift. As he stepped onto the lift and it began to head upwards the Pyramid was filled with sound of blaring sirens as robots scrambled around to stop Sonic and to disarm the bomb before it was too late, once the lift reached its destination Rookie ran out of it and over to Sonic who was standing next to a hole in the Pyramid's wall that he had made, he was ushering the prisoners out of the Pyramid and once Rookie reached Sonic he said "The timer's been set! Let's get out of here!"

Sonic nodded as the last prisoner climbed through the hole and the other two followed after them. Sonic, Rookie, and the escaped prisoners all ran from the Pyramid as fast as they could, of course Sonic wasn't going as fast as he could, he had to make sure to help anyone that might've found some difficulty running, and once they were a safe enough distance from the Pyramid Sonic and Rookie turned around and watched as the Pyramid suddenly exploded, the sound of the blast rolled through the valley and scraps of metal from various different things flew through the air. Sonic patted Rookie on his back "Good job buddy. Now let's get back to the Resistance."

Rookie nodded before they both turned around and came face to face with a yellow furred Rabbit who said "But where are we supposed to go?"

Sonic sighed "Honestly, there really isn't a safe place around here anymore, so I don't really know. Maybe you can find someplace to hide here in Green Hill, but I honestly don't know."

The Rabbit nodded sadly before Rookie suddenly said "Eggman's forces have left Marble Hill Zone! That might be a good place to hide."

The Rabbit nodded and smiled before spinning back around and running over to the rest of the prisoners to tell them the good news.

* * *

6:04 P.M. Green Hill, Tails' Old Airstrip.

* * *

Tails let go of Blue and he landed on the old asphalt runway before Tails landed next to him. The two then began to walk towards the metal hanger that was built into the side of the mountain, while they walked Blue looked over to Tails "How dusty is this place gonna be?"

Tails shrugged "I haven't been here in years so I don't really know."

The then reached the metal doors of the hanger and the two worked together to open them. Blue walked into the hanger and saw that it was littered with incomplete projects, old wooden crates and planks, as well as various bits and pieces that would've once been used to replace other bits and pieces from the Tornado, but what caught Blue's eye was in the middle of the hanger there was some sort of object covered in an old white tarp. Blue pointed to the tarp covered object "What's that thing?"

Tails looked over to the object and he was filled with a sense of giddy excitement, he ran over to the tarp covered object and quickly pulled it off of the object revealing it to be "The original Tornado!"

As the tarp slid off of the old plane it made the propellers spin around, Blue stared at the pealing and weathered paint that tried its hardest to cling to the metal of the plane "Wow, it's only felt like a few days since I last so it, but.. Man.. Just.. That's all I can say, just wow."

Tails nodded "Yeah, I thought I had this thing moved to one of my other workshops but its still here!"

Blue walked over to the plane and ran his hand along its side "Why does it smell like my dirty old socks?"

Tails sniffed the plane and immediately regretted his decision "Agh! I shouldn't have done that!"

Blue laughed slightly before jumping up onto the metal wing of the biplane "So, we gonna use this to fly over to the.. Mystic.. Whatever."

Tails nodded before he climbed into the Tornado's pilot seat and turning its engine on. But nothing happened, Tails tried again, but it nothing happened still. Blue hopped off of the plane and Tails climbed out of the pilot's seat "I don't understand why it won't start."

Blue then popped open a hatch that lead to the plane's engine, Blue inspected the engine for a moment before saying "It doesn't have any gas in it."

Tails sighed "Great.. And this place doesn't have any stray cans of oil lying around so we can't just fuel it back up."

Blue nodded as he closed the hatch and faced Tails "There's nothing else we can do?"

Tails thought about it for a moment before snapping his fingers "Oh I got it! If we replace the engine with a Chaos powered engine we might be able to have it charged up by morning!"

Blue glanced over to the plane for a moment before saying "Is that even possible?"

Tails nodded as he began to make his way over to an old workbench "It should, I honestly don't see a reason why it shouldn't."

He then sat down on a dusty leather stool and spun around so he could face Blue "But I'm gonna need your help."

Blue nodded "I'm at your service."

Tails grinned before saying "Okay I need you to get me, a wrench, a screwdriver, a hammer just in case. And if you see a glass cylinder that has a crystal inside of it, give that to me as well."

Blue nodded again before speeding off and collecting all of the things Tails asked him to get. As Blue zipped around gathering tools he eventually passed by an old crate and heard a low hum come from it, he skid to a halt before setting the tools he had in his hands on the ground and walking over to the crate, he slid the crate's lid off and stared into the crate, inside of the crate there was a glass cylinder that had a green crystal in it and it was glowing and humming slightly, Blue picked up the cylinder and stared at it, whatever it was, it vibrated as it hummed. Blue ran back over to Tails and put the tools as well as that cylinder on top of the bench "There you go." Tails grabbed onto one of the wrenches before pulling open a drawer and saying "Thanks, this shouldn't take too long."

Blue nodded before he walked back over to the Tornado and jumped up onto the wing. He then sat down on it and watched as Tails put together a much small engine for the Tornado, after maybe half an hour or so Tails slid the cylinder into the engine and picked it up, he struggled slightly to get off of the stool while still holding onto the engine "H- Hey Blue. Can you r- remove the old engine f- for me?"

Blue nodded before he jumped off of the Tornado's wing and opened up the hatch that lead to the engine. Blue stuck his hands into the insides of the plane and, after a moment of probing around the inside of it, he was able to remove the engine and set it down next to the plane, Tails then installed the Chaos powered engine before running over to the side of the plane and jumping back into the pilot's seat, he then turned on the plane's ignition and after a few more attempts at turning it on the engine sputtered and suddenly it began to emit a deep humming sound as the front of the plane began to vibrate. Tails hopped out of the pilot's seat and walked over to Blue "Now all we have to do is wait for it to charge up and we'll be ready to go."

Blue nodded "Great!... Does this place even have beds we can sleep on?"

Tails glanced around the hanger before saying "Uh... I can't exactly remember if it does or doesn't."

Blue sighed "That's fine, I can sleep on the Tornado's wing, and you can take the nice and comfy leather seat."

Tails nodded before the two climbed onto the Tornado and got into their sleeping positions, and after a minute or two of waiting, they both fell asleep while the engine continued to charge up.


	9. Mystic Jungle, Mystic Trouble

6:32 P.M. West Side Island, Mystic Jungle.

* * *

Sonic ran through the glowing forest of the Jungle heading towards the last place a squad of missing soldiers reported in at. Amy had ordered Sonic to head into the Mystic Jungle and look for the soldiers, as well as figure out the source of a strange energy source in that area and to also deal with that dude that was able to take down Sonic last year, Sonic looked over to his left and saw that he was running along side a canyon that had a beautiful crystal clear river flowing through it, but on the other side of the canyon there were was an entire section of forest that was on fire, as Sonic continued to run forwards the voice of Knuckles came over Sonic's earpiece "Eggman's forces are scattering bombs like confetti!"

Then the voice of Amy also came over the earpiece and sadly said "We can't go on like this!"

As Sonic began to approach the ruins of an ancient city he boosted forwards taking out a gathering of Egg Pawns along the way, at the same time Sonic said "The whole place is going up in flames. Those bombs aren't the kinds of fireworks I like to see, and that fire isn't the kind of blaze I like to see either."

Sonic then ran across a stone bridge that had various pillars lining it, each of the pillars had neon decorations wrapped around it that looked like the kind of thing you'd see at a casino. Eventually Sonic entered the ruins ancient city of an unknown civilization lost to the sands of time. He looked over to his left and saw that the city sat next to a lake, and sitting on an island in the middle of the lake there was an ancient palace covered in neon decorations "Why does Eggman love to turn stuff that shouldn't be casinos, into casinos?"

Sonic then returned his eyes forwards as Egg Pawns attempted to attack him, he boosted through those robots he then jumped up and landed on the roof of a temple and ran across it, once he reached the end of the roof he jumped off of it and Stomped onto the ground, he then boosted forwards when suddenly the ground underneath him became to shudder. He quickly jumped up before the stone pathway collapsed and took out various pillars standing next to it as well, Sonic soared through the air and over another canyon when he saw lying in front of him was the massive hollowed out log of a tree, a really big tree from the looks of it too, Sonic landed in the hallowed out log and began to run through it, the log bent to the right slightly so Sonic turned the corner slightly and saw various robots all standing inside of the log in front of him, among those robots there were Egg Pawns and the purple, long legged, Egg Walkers. Sonic boosted forwards and continued to run through the log, taking out any robots that got in his way. Suddenly the log came to an end and Sonic jumped up into the air, there was a small gap in between the end of the log and the next patch of land, luckily hovering over that gap was several redesigned Nebula, Sonic homing attacked the ones that'd get him to the other side and once he had accomplished that he landed on the ground and ran through a stone tunnel, as he ran Buzz Bombers and Valkeens flew over head and tried to shot at him from the air, luckily he boosted and the flying robots weren't able to keep up with him. As he left the tunnel the staticy voice of one of the missing soldiers came over his communicator "W- W- W- We're doomed! We c- c- c- can't hold o- o- o- out any lon- lon- longer!"

Sonic quickly said into his communicator "You've done plenty!"

In an attempt to comfort the terrified soldier, sadly Sonic didn't know if the soldier could hear him, and even if the soldier could hear Sonic, that soldier might've been so scared that he didn't even listen to Sonic. As he continued to boost forwards the voice of Amy came over his communicator "I've located the enemy, and the energy source. They're in the ruins up ahead."

Sonic smiled as he realized he's getting even closer to getting a second round with that masked jerk "Great Amy! I'll make sure everyone's efforts weren't in vain!"

Sonic then jumped up into the air in an attempt to avoid running through a not-so-deep, and not-so-wide valley. As he flew through the air the voice of Amy suddenly came over his communicator "Unidentified life from on the radar!"

The ground below Sonic began to shake as something began to burrow its way above ground "Something from the jungle!?"

When suddenly a massive snake burst out of the ground in front of Sonic. It stared right at the flying Hedgehog and opened its mouth to try and snatch him out of the air, the two quickly inched closer and closer, but Sonic had to wait for the right moment and suddenly that moment showed itself, Sonic quickly thrust his hand out and he grabbed onto the snake's nose, he quickly pulled himself up onto its face and began to run down its backside all the while saying to himself "I guess all the explosions riled it up."

Sonic sighed sadly "Doesn't look like I'll get past without a fight."

But suddenly the snake flicked its tail upwards and sent Sonic flying up into the air, then suddenly the snake's head lunged at Sonic and the Hedgehog was quickly enveloped by the snake's mouth and swallowed down its throat. The snake let out a sigh of satisfaction when suddenly Sonic said from inside of its neck said "You're so gonna regret that! Hedgehogs don't make good snacks."

The snake let out a roar of pain as Sonic pulled into his Spin Ball before crashing around the insides of the snake's throat, eventually the snake spat Sonic out of its neck and sent him flying, and as he soared through the air the saliva that he was covered in dried off of before he landed on the ground and ran into the ruins where that energy source was, and that jerk too.

* * *

6:34 P.M. Mystic Jungle, Resistance Base in the Ruins.

* * *

The masked Jackal was hovering off of the ground, he looked over the cowering soldiers that laid on the ground in front of him. He shook his head slightly "Pathetic, you plan on destroying Eggman's Empire. While you can't even face me without trembling? Heheh, how weak can you be?"

Suddenly some of their faces brightened up as something appeared behind them, the Jackal looked over his shoulder and saw a cyan glow "You again.. I thought I lost you in the jungle. Well, this wasn't part of my agenda, but I'm always happy to crush a hero."

The Jackal chuckled slightly "It keeps the rabble in line. Shows them that there is no hope."

The Jackal then turned around fully and faced the white hedgehog, with amber eyes, a large tuft of chest hair, blue boots, white gloves, and surrounded by a cyan glow, according to Eggman the white Hedgehog's name is Silver, and he was hovering off of the ground at the same height as the Jackal. Silver glared at the Jackal "Does anyone but you believe your lies?"

The Jackal then suddenly flew towards Silver in an attempt to crash into him, but Silver was able to dodge the attack and the two began to chase after each other in the air and at the same time those soldiers began to run from them, suddenly the Jackal turned around and smashed into Silver. The two bounced off of each other while Silver saw something fell out of the Jackal's hand out of the corner of his eye but suddenly the Jackal charged towards Silver again and the two were locked back into battle. Silver ducked underneath the Jackal but suddenly the masked monster spun around in the air and kicked Silver's face. The forced of the kick caused Silver to be launched backwards and into a stone wall, as he fell to the ground bellow him his cyan aura left his body and once he hit the ground the Jackal said "Seeing is believing."

He then clenched his fist and charged towards Silver, when suddenly a blue sphere crashed into the Jackal and shoved him away from Silver. Sonic landed on the ground in front of Silver and said "Time to tag Silver! I've got it from here!"

Sonic glanced over his shoulder and saw Silver begin to pick himself up off of the ground "Keep those soldiers safe."

Silver nodded and coughed slightly, Sonic looked away from the white Hedgehog as he coughed a tooth out of his mouth before Silver ran towards the escaping soldiers. The Jackal glared down at Sonic "Well, look who's back from the dead. The little blue savior."

He then crossed his arms over his chest and placed one of his hands on his mask "But what's that I smell? You reek of fear. Glad to see I left an impression."

Sonic smelled himself before saying "That's not fear. I ran all the way over here. And you haven't left an impression on me. I don't even know anything about you! Not even your name!"

The Jackal readjusted his mask before taking his hand off of his helmet "You may call me... _Infinite_. In the brief moments that remain to you."

Sonic grinned "Great! See Infinite, now we're getting to know each other!"

He then began to pace back and forth in front of Infinite "So, what's your favorite color? Do you like long romantic walks on the beach? What's the source of your power? You can skip the first two questions if you like."

Infinite shook his head "The source of my power is none of your concern."

Sonic eyed the gemstone attached to Infinite's chest while saying "Sorry, but you just GOT to share the secret of your power with me, I insist!"

Sonic began to run towards Infinite. When suddenly he spread his arms out and the black markings on the right side of his mask began to glow red "Your insistence is futile!"

Suddenly a massive reddish orange blast came from Infinite and Sonic began to float off of the ground. As Sonic tried to return to the ground bellow him but before he could Infinite suddenly crashed into Sonic and sent him flying through the air, once the sight of the ruins left Sonic's sight that reddish orange glow also left, and suddenly he began to fall towards the ground, Sonic hit the ground and bounced off of it a few times before skidding to a halt. Sonic picked himself up off of the ground and saw that to his right was a large cliff face, and over to his left was a giant canyon, and inside of that canyon there was a burning forest who's yellow light reached the top of the canyon wall Sonic was on, then Infinite float down from the air in front of Sonic "Still thrashing around I see. You filthy little sewer rat."

Sonic stood upright and began to run towards Infinite who began to fly away from Sonic, still facing the Hedgehog. Sonic then said "Haven't you seen a Hedgehog before? Come on! I'll show you my spines and quills!"

Sonic then began to boost towards Infinite who held his hand out and red cubes began to appear in front of Sonic blocking his path. Sonic jumped over the cube barrier when suddenly Infinite fired an energy shot out of his palm at Sonic, the Hedgehog ducked underneath the shot and quickly got back up to his feet, suddenly a tendril made of red cubes rose out of the canyon, it swung at Sonic, and the Hedgehog wasn't able to dodge the attack so it was able to hit him. Sonic fell onto his back and as he stood up he saw that his sight had been covered in a tint of reddish orange color. As he got up onto his feet he began to run forwards again trying to find Infinite again, when suddenly spikes burst out of the ground in front of him, he jumped over them and another set of spikes appeared again, Sonic jumped over that set of spikes again and once he landed back on the ground the reddish tint left his sight and Infinite appeared over him again "What did you-"

But he wouldn't get his answer because Infinite then flew high up into the air and the path Sonic was running on suddenly came to a stop. Sadly Sonic didn't have enough time to react so he fell into the burning canyon, but as he fell a massive cylinder of red cubes appeared underneath him and it turned into a giant snake, Sonic landed on the back of the snake and as he stood up Infinite lowered down from the sky again. Sonic grumbled to himself as he began to run towards Infinite again "That guy's starting to get on my nerves."

He boosted forwards and like last time red cube barriers began to appear in front of Sonic again, but unlike last time Sonic was able to jump over and dodge each of the cube obstacles, he then suddenly jumped up into the air and Homing Attacked into Infinite, Sonic bounced off of Infinite who was surprised enough to not block Sonic's attack and the Hedgehog landed on the back of the snake again and Infinite groaned slightly from his pain, Sonic boosted off towards Sonic and was able to Homing Attack Infinite again, but once he landed back on the snake he reached its head and he quickly jumped off of it. Sonic landed on the side of a canyon wall and jumped to the other side. All the while Infinite suddenly began to multiply until there was around four of them, Sonic then jumped into the air and Homing Attacked into the lead Infinite, who appeared to be a fake, he then Homing Attacked into the next fake Infinite, and as he Homing Attacked into the last Infinite Sonic realized that the Infinite he hit was the real one. As Sonic landed on a small canyon path underneath him the remaining fake Infinites disappeared and the real one continued to fly in front of Sonic, the Hedgehog jumped up into the air and Homing Attacked towards Infinite but a red cube tendril swung towards Sonic but he was able to Stomp to the ground and jump back up into the air when he was able to Homing Attack into Infinite.

The masked Jackal clenched his fists in anger while pain coursed through his body, he then used his powers to pick up a chunk of ground and threw it at Sonic, the Hedgehog jumped up and landed on the chunk before jumping back up into the air and Homing Attacked Infinite, Sonic then landed back on the ground and quickly Homing Attacked into Infinite again, he continued to do it over, and over, and over again, until he jumped up into the air, spun around in the air, and kicked the Jackal's masked face. The two of them landed on the ground, Sonic on his feet, and Infinite on his stomach, the masked Jackal began to pick himself up off of the ground while saying "Impossible! Your abilities exceed your previous data!"

Sonic smugly grinned at Infinite "Unlike mechs I can grow. I get more powerful every second!"

Infinite placed a hand on top of his mask and began to clench it out of anger "I will teach you to hold that tongue next time we meet. You can count on it."

He then began to lift off of the ground again, shaking his head to alleviate his pain "Well. You've improved since the last time we met. But you will still lose."

Infinite blasted out another reddish orange light that engulfed Sonic. Infinite then created two spheres of energy in either of his hands and threw them at Sonic, the Hedgehog was able to dodge the energy spheres but suddenly a third one was able to hit him, Sonic began to fall down into the canyon but he was able to grab onto a stray branch that saved his life, Infinite lifted his hand up and another sphere of energy appeared in his palm, but before it could hit Sonic Silver blasted the incoming sphere and blocked Infinite and Sonic's sight of each other. Sonic smiled at the white Hedgehog "Silver! Thanks for the save!"

Silver nodded while Infinite growled at him "Get out of my way you pathetic hog! I have some business to finish."

Silver shook his head "Not in a thousand years, or even two hundred more."

Infinite clenched his fists in anger again "You do nothing but get in my way, but do not worry Sonic we will be able to finish our battle because, soon, this hog will no longer be able to do get in my way."

Infinite then charged towards Silver who suddenly grabbed onto the Jackal's arms and the two disappeared in a bright flash of reddish orange and cyan light. Sonic swung himself up to the top of the canyon and began to do a mental recap of what had just happened, but each time he did he always got stuck on that moment when he entered that strange world of spiked ground "Rrrrrgh! I gotta figure out the secret of his power."

Suddenly the voice of Amy came over Sonic's earpiece "Sonic?! Are you alright?! After you entered the ruins I lost contact with you!"

Sonic nodded "Yeah, I'm here. And I found out the source of that strange energy source. It was Silver!"

Amy gasped "Really!? That's great news! Maybe Silver might just be the boost in power that we need."

Sonic then began to run out of the Mystic Jungle. As he ran he said "I also found out the name of that masked jerk.. It's Infinite.. Which I'm guessing is the amount of ego he's got."

Amy sighed "Just.. Get back to the base."

Sonic chuckled slightly and said "You got it Amy."

Before boosting forwards getting closer to the edge of the Mystic Jungle.

* * *

6:38 P.M. Mediter, Apotos, Ruins of Promethium.

* * *

In a bright flash of cyan and reddish orange light both Infinite and Silver appeared in the middle of the completely demolished capital building. Infinite shoved Silver away from him "What did you- How- How did you do this?!"

Silver glanced around his surroundings, the entire city, it was destroyed there wasn't anything left "I- Wouldn't you like to know."

Infinite clenched his fists as he glared at Silver "I see right through you child. You have no clue how you did that, and I won't lie, neither do I. But that doesn't matter now, because it is time for you to meet you fate."

Infinite was then surrounded by a red aura before he floated up off of the ground. Silver then also surrounded himself in his own aura but he remained on the ground "We'll see about that."

Infinite held his hand out and fired an energy shot at Silver who quickly jumped out of the way and used his telekinesis to pick up some of the capitol building's rubble before throwing it at Infinite, the Jackal floated out of the way of the rubble before suddenly a chunk of rubble was lifted up off of the ground and surrounded by a red aura. Infinite thrust his hand out and the chunk of rubble was lunged towards Silver, the Hedgehog raised his hands up and before the chunk of rubble hit him it exploded and the bits of remaining rubble missed him, Infinite grumbled "I truly do not have time to deal with you. No one will ever care if you just give up and die here."

Silver clenched his fists "Do you really think I'd just give up?!"

Infinite sighed "It would've made things so much easier.. So if you aren't willing to drop dead, then I must do it myself."

Suddenly Infinite sped towards Silver and kicked him up into the air. Silver quickly used his telekinesis to stop himself in midair but Infinite quickly appeared behind him and kicked him down towards the ground. As Silver fell Infinite made half of a bell fly up towards Silver and crash into him, as Silver flew back towards Infinite the Jackal floated out of Silver's way and let him pass, Silver fell onto the cracked street that sat behind the destroyed capital building only to be almost crushed by a car, as Silver rolled out of the car's way Infinite made an entire wall of red cubes appear behind Silver. Without even knowing it Silver ran into the wall and entered a strange world where everything was tinted reddish orange, and Infinite was gone, but what was there were three different Egg Titans standing over him, the massive robots charged up their lasers and fired at Silver while the Hedgehog flew away from them as fast as he could, one of the Titans punched its spiked hand out to try and hit Silver but before it could the reddish orange world faded away and Infinite grabbed onto Silver's tuft of chest fur. Infinite then threw Silver towards the ground before making rubble combine together to create a building made out of asphalt, wood, concrete, and glass, as Silver struggled to stand back up Infinite made the building crash down on top of Silver, once the entire building had been crashed over Silver's head Infinite looked through the dust of destruction and saw Silver still sounding and surrounded by a force field made from his telekinetic powers.

Infinite shook his head "Like I've said before, I have no time for this. I have a mission to complete, so, instead of finishing you off like I want to.. I'll let gravity decide your fate."

Silver looked at Infinite confused when suddenly the force field surrounding him disappeared and he was flung high up into the air. Infinite watched as Silver disappeared behind a cloud before flying off back towards West Side Island and the Mystic Jungle, meanwhile Silver flailed through the air as he panicked, he had to calm himself down, and once he did calm himself down just enough to think clearly he tried to levitate himself in midair, but that force field had taken to much out of him, he was just to weak so as he continued to try, and failed, to save himself with his telekinesis he began to fall back down towards the ground. Silver's eyes widened in shock as he saw himself begin to approach a single spike from an old rusty fence, yet again Silver attempted to use his telekinesis to avoid the spike but yet again he couldn't, he just couldn't, he wasn't strong enough, Silver closed his eyes and he felt his entire body flare up, his nerves were going crazy, he felt oddly warm, his ears started to ring, he could fell his eyes begin to water, his mouth felt dry, and in an instant he disappeared in a flash of bright cyan blue light.

* * *

6:40 P.M. South Island, Green Hill City, Resistance Base, Briefing Room.

* * *

Sonic yawned as he sat down in a chair next to the briefing table. Knuckles looked over to Sonic "I take it your mission was successful."

Sonic nodded "Yeah, yeah it was. Did Amy tell you about what I learned in there?"

Knuckles nodded "She did indeed."

Sonic nodded again "That's good... Listen, Knux, I'm really tired so that's about all I can help you with?"

Knuckles grinned slightly "You? Tired?"

Sonic rolled his eyes "I haven't actually slept since last year, and I've only gotten half a nap since then."

Knuckles nodded "Fair enough. There's a sleeping quarter just outside of the Briefing Room."

Sonic nodded yet again "Thanks Knux."

He then stood up but as he did a strange gust of wind entered the underground room. Anything that was small and not very secure on the ground, Sonic turned around and as he did a bright cyan flash of light appeared over the table, and Silver fell out of midair and fell onto the table before he then slid off of it and onto the ground, Sonic ran over to Silver and began to help him up "Silver! Dude are you okay?"

Silver shakily nodded "Y- Yeah.. I'm f- fine."

Knuckles also ran over to Silver "Kid! You don't look fine!"

Knuckles then pointed to a bruise on the side of Silver's head. The white Hedgehog touched his bruise and winced slightly "I- I.. I fought I- Infinite."

Silver then leaned against the side of the table and Sonic let go of him. Knuckles stepped in front of Silver "You fought Infinite? I'd congratulate you on living to tell the tale, but, the fact you TRIED to fight him deserves some kind of punishment."

Silver looked at Knuckles slightly confused "W- What?"

Knuckles nodded "Yeah. I mean, as the leader of the Resistance I have to punish soldiers who do something reckless and stupid."

Silver coughed slightly as he said "W- What? Soldier?"

Knuckles nodded again a slight grin growing on his face "Yeah. Of course unless you don't want to become a soldier which is fine."

Silver also grinned "If Resistance soldiers fight to save the world, then I'm in."

Knuckles held his hand out and Silver shook it "That's good to hear."

Sonic patted Silver's back as lightly as he could "Welcome to the club buddy, you're gonna get along well with your fellow soldiers."

Silver attempted to stand up straight but that only caused him to wince out in pain slightly "Agh! Does- Does this place have a med bay?"

Knuckles nodded "There is, its a level below this one." Silver also nodded before Espio suddenly walked over and began to help Silver walk out of the room. Sonic followed behind Silver and Espio, but he didn't enter the elevator, instead he walked into the sleeping quarter. The door slid open and Sonic saw Newt and Matty both sleeping in a bunk bed, Matty on top, Newt on bottom, but the bunk over to the left had a young red Wolf sitting on the lower bed looking down at the floor, Sonic walked over to Rookie and leaned against the bed's supports "Hey."

Rookie was shocked slightly to hear and see Sonic so it took him a moment to respond "..H- Hey Sonic."

The Hedgehog waved slightly before a moment of silence fell in between them. Suddenly Sonic spoke up again "What you up to?"

Rookie shrugged "I- I heard about how you fought Infinite and.. And."

Sonic walked over to the side of Rookie and sat down next to him "Come on, I don't bite."

Rookie sighed "Just. Keep it between us alright?"

Sonic nodded before Rookie continued "A month ago, I- I ran into Infinite... I was trying to smuggle myself out of the city when he just showed up. I watched as Infinite mowed down the other refugees, and- and- I couldn't do anything. I was too scared, so I ran, and he let me... I never told anyone not even Newt or Matty.. I just couldn't, I can't."

Sonic rubbed Rookie's shoulder "Hey, I understand.. Kind of.. But I promise that I won't tell anyone, but you've got to come clean soon."

Rookie nodded before Sonic stood up and began to climb up the bunk bed ladder "Also, I might snore a little in my sleep so do be warned."

Rookie nodded before Sonic climbed up onto the top bunk, he was too tired to completely get ready for bed so he just took off his shoes and tossed them to the floor before laying his head down and falling asleep almost instantly, soon Rookie took off his boots, gloves, combat pouches, glasses, and earpiece before laying down and falling asleep hoping silently to himself to not have a nightmare about Infinite like he had been since he first met him.


	10. Vs Eggman!

November 4th, 9:08 A.M. South Island, Green Hill Zone, the Old Airstrip.

* * *

Blue snored slightly as he tossed and turned on top of the metal wing of the Tornado. He was dreaming of running through Studiopolis Zone again when he began to hear the sound of someone grumbling outside of the hanger, he groggily opened his eyes before looking over to the semi-open doors of the hanger "Why.. Why is someone out at this time of day?"

He then sleepily slid off of the Tornado and began to walk over to the hanger doors, when suddenly he heard the voice of what sounded like an ever so slightly sassy robotic voice say "Boss! You've got an incoming message from Infinite."

Blue peeked in between the opening of the doors and saw Eggman, in his Egg Mobile, look over to the circular red Orbot and say "Fine, play the message." Orbot nodded before it displayed a holographic image of that masked Jackal who was holding a gemstone in his hand. Eggman looked over to the holographic image and suddenly the Jackal crushed the stone in his hand "And with that, the disposal of the Phantom Ruby prototypes is complete."

As Infinite opened his hand and let the dust from the crushed stone slip in between his fingers Eggman said "It was a defective model. It could only record the DNA of the one that triggered it."

Infinite then placed a hand on his chest while saying "Only a being with my strength of will could ever activate it."

Eggman sighed "It doesn't matter now, with both the lab in the Mystic Jungle and the Egg Station locked down. Which reminds me, didn't you run into Sonic last night after he escaped?"

Infinite nodded, but from Blue's angle it looked almost as if Infinite nodded sadly, before saying "Yes, he was powerless against me.."

Eggman and Infinite both went silent for a moment before the Doctor suddenly said "And?!"

"And I was on the verge of whipping him off the face of this planet. When that troublemaker from the future showed up and, somehow, transported me to the remains of Apotos."

Eggman slammed his hands down on the front of his Egg Mobile "The Hedgehog is still ALIVE?! And some two-bit hero from an infinitely destroyed future stop you?! Infinite, that is a great source of concern for me!"

Infinite chuckled slightly "For you, perhaps. Sonic has beaten you for decades, yet I defeated him in our first encounter. As for that white hog, he has yet to fight on any sort of battlefield in his life, he will be like an ANT that I can crush under foot."

While Infinite back-talked Eggman the Doctor glared at him. Blue silently said to himself "Phantom Ruby prototypes? That's the name of that gem me and Egghead were fighting over back at the Monarch... And this world's Sonic is.. Alive!"

Suddenly the holographic image of Infinite looked over to the hanger doors and Blue quickly ducked behind one of them, Eggman also looked over to the hanger doors but he didn't see anything "What is it?"

Infinite stared at the doors for a moment longer before saying "Nothing. We move forward with the plan?"

And while Infinite looked back over to Eggman the Doctor said "Of course! When it's complete, the Resistance will be erased. The world will be nothing but ashes, from which my glorious Eggman Empire will rise!"

As Eggman finished talking Blue could hear the sound of the Phantom Ruby's pulsing coming from the holographic image of Infinite as the Jackal said "And the Resistance will yield to the Phantom Ruby's power. All will submit."

Eggman nodded before Infinite turned off his end of the holographic transmission. Eggman sighed out of frustration as he reclined into the leather seat of his Egg Mobile "Now where is that organism? I've been searching for it since the crack of dawn!"

Orbot shrugged "I don't know. But Cubot was left in charge of the base so we should probably get back before he blows something up."

But Eggman wasn't paying any attention to what Orbot was saying, instead he became interested in a sound he heard inside of the hanger. Blue ran over to the Tornado and jumped up onto its wing "Tails! Tails! Wake up!"

The Fox groaned slightly as he opened his eyes "S- Sonic?.. Is that you?"

Blue shook his head "Nah, well technically not, It's me Blue. And I've got some good news!"

Tails rubbed his eyes as he sat up straight in the old cushioned seat of the Tornado, audible pops were heard coming out of Tails' back as he did "Ugh, Blue? What is it?"

Blue crouched down to be closer to Tails "Sonic, your Sonic, he's alive! He escaped.. Some place, and now he's free!"

That immediately woke Tails up "Sonic's alive!? Really?!"

Blue nodded "Yeah, I over heard Egghead talking to Infinite, that masked Jackal monster thing, about how Sonic escaped."

Tails' wide eyes of happiness turned into wide eyes of shock "Wait? Eggman?"

Blue nodded "Yeah, but don't worry, about the only thing he can do is ram into us with his Egg Mobile, or throw that red robot thing at us."

Tails began to climb out of the Tornado while saying "That doesn't matter! Green Hills is under his complete occupation! He can call for reinforcements at any-"

"Oh but I have no need for that."

Both Blue and Tails looked over to the hanger's doors as a buzz saw burst through it cutting a hole in the metal large enough for Eggman to fly into the hanger. The two of them saw that the Egg Mobile had a red buzz saw attached by a chain to the bottom of the Mobile, and as Eggman entered the hanger he was surprised to see Blue standing there, but he was more surprised by the fact that his on board computer was telling him Blue was the source of that strange brain wave report the spy drone sent him "What?! You!"

Blue charged towards Eggman and jumped up into the air before crashing into the Egg Mobile "Agh! I don't have time for this."

Eggman then retracted the buzz saw and began to fly out of the hanger while Blue said "Oh come on! I'll make it quick!"

But Eggman didn't pay any attention to the younger Sonic. As Blue chased after Eggman he looked over his shoulder and said to Tails "Get the Tornado ready! I'll be back soon!"

Tails tried to yell for Blue to stop but the Hedgehog quickly jumped through the hole in the doors and ran after Eggman, Blue ran down the side of the mountain and to the back of it where he saw Eggman flying past a massive lake of sand "Hey Doc! It's my two o'clock appointment!"

Eggman grumbled before turning his Egg Mobile around and releasing the buzz saw again "Fine, if it's a battle you want. A battle you shall get!"

Blue ran towards Eggman and the Doctor made the buzz saw sing at Blue. The Hedgehog ducked underneath the incoming saw while Eggman cackled out "Such power exceeds even MY expectations. Hah! My own genius scares me sometimes!"

Blue rolled his eyes "Come on Eggman, that's just a glorified version of the chain and ball from our first encounter.

Blue then jumped up into the air and crashed into the back of the Mobile, right as he did the voice of Tails suddenly came over the Mobile's built in PA system "But that means you miscalculated. That's a failure in my book."

As Blue landed back on the ground he had to duck underneath the incoming blades of the saw, all the while Eggman said "Mwa-haha! To surpass expectations is the ultimate of genius! I wouldn't except either of you to understand."

Blue then quickly jumped up into the air and cut the buzz saw's chain in half before landing back on the ground and jumping up into the air again, this time crashing into the Egg Mobile. Blue stood in front of Eggman and the Mobile "You conquered the world and all you did was add blades to the chain and ball? Man, you disappoint me."

But suddenly Eggman began to laugh, quietly and slowly at first, but as the shore of the sand lake began to shake Eggman's cackle grew louder and faster, until suddenly a massive, red, winged mech that had a giant gatling gun for a right arm, and a giant drill for a left arm burst out of the sand behind Eggman. He flew his Egg Mobile up to the mech and connected into it "Behold! The Egg Dragoon Mark 2!"

The massive mech then lunged its gatling gun arm at Blue before firing a massive volley of bullets at the Hedgehog. Blue jumped up into the air narrowly dodging some bullets before hitting the ground and blasting off into the Drop Dash. The Egg Dragoon Mrk.2 then quickly pulled its right arm back and thrust the drill arm out, blocking Blue's path, he skid to a halt and as he turned around to run so he could put some distance in between him and the Egg Dragoon Mrk.2 the mech suit suddenly pulled the drill out of the ground and flew over Blue's head, and as it passed over him its two strange claw like feet grabbed onto him and carried him away. Blue tried his hardest to break free from the Egg Dragoon Mrk.2's hold but its mechanical grip was too tight on him, that's when the mech suddenly let go of him letting Blue fall through the air, he spun around in the air and saw that he was heading straight towards the ground, he quickly thrust his arms and legs out before just as quickly bringing them back in and curling into a Spin Ball. He hit the ground and burst right through it without taking much damage, Blue then untucked himself out of the Spin Ball and saw that he was heading straight towards an underground lake of water, sadly Blue couldn't avoid crashing into the water so once he did he quickly pulled himself out and saw that he was in a cavern with a tall roof and a single passageway out of there, Blue dried himself off quickly before running forwards and into the passageway.

That passageway was slowly leading upwards and eventually he saw over to his left that there was various holes in the wall of the passage that almost looked like windows. As Blue ran through the passage the Egg Dragoon Mrk.2 began to fly along side Blue "Hahahahah! BURN!" the mech then held up its right arm and flames burst out of it, Blue quickly sped up and he barely kept ahead of the fires, and as he ran he saw the end of the passage coming towards him, and as he left the passage the Egg Dragoon Mrk.2 it stopped firing its own flames and flew forwards. Blue skid to a halt and turned to face the giant mech as Eggman made the mech use its clawed mechanical feet to pick up chunks of ground, the Egg Dragoon Mrk.2 then covered them in ice and threw them at Blue, the Hedgehog dodged the incoming iced rocks when he saw his chance, he jumped up into the air and hit one of the chunks of ground back to the Egg Dragoon Mrk.2. The iced rock crashed into the body of the mech suit which caused Eggman to yell out "You've got a lot of nerve for a pint-sized Sonic from another dimension! Even though this Egg Dragoon wasn't designed to deal with Sonic after he was defeated, it's only lost 10% of its combat strength. Which it makes up for in THIS!"

The Egg Dragoon Mrk.2 then suddenly the drill arm split open and it fired a massive laser at Blue. The Hedgehog jumped out of the laser's way before coming to a stop and yelling out "That's what 10% of combat strength lost looks like to you?!"

Eggman rolled his eyes "It's not for fighting."

Blue then watched as the laser hit a tree and it suddenly disappear "It's for easy capture."

Blue then bolted away from the Egg Dragoon Mrk.2 but the mech of course followed after him. The Egg Dragoon Mrk.2 thrust its drill arm out and the drill launched off of the mech's arm like a rocket. Blue jumped out of the drills way and once it hit the ground, the Egg Dragoon Mrk.2 used a built in magnetic system to draw the drill back into its arm, Blue suddenly turned around and ran towards Eggman, but the mech suit swiped its drill arm at him which only allowed Blue to jump up onto its mechanical wrist and run up the arm to the top of the suit. Blue jumped up into the air and crashed into the top of the Egg Mobile's glass case, Blue bounced off of it and landed on the ground and began to run away while the Egg Dragoon Mrk.2 spun around and chased after him, Blue glanced over his shoulder and saw that the mech was only barely even damaged "This isn't going to last much longer at this rate, what kind of metal is that thing made out of?"

The Egg Dragoon Mrk.2 fired its gatling gun arm at Blue and the bullets barely missed him. The mech stopped firing so it could fly over Blue and block the Hedgehog's path with a pile of boulders, Blue skid to a halt as the mech glared down at him "Ahahahah! Wohohohohohoh! First I defeated Sonic, and now I'm taking out a Sonic from a different dimension entirely!? Is it my birthday? Or has Christmas come early? Either way, I'll gladly take this gift."

Blue couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of fear crawl down his spine, the same kind of fear he had when he first saw the Death Egg Robot on the original Death Egg. That's when suddenly an old bi-plan flew by the Egg Dragoon Mrk.2's face. Eggman looked up into the sky very surprised "What?!"

And suddenly Tails yelled from the Tornado "Blue! I'll keep Eggman busy while you take down the mech!"

Blue then yelled out a response "I don't know how!"

Tails quickly pulled out his Mini-Miles-Electric and tossed it to Blue while also saying "I've already analyzed the interior and exterior of the suit! The MME has its four strongest weak points already pulled up on it!"

Blue grabbed the MME and stared at its screen. It showed that the Egg Dragoon Mrk.2 was weak in the middle of its spinal region, the elbow joint for the gatling gun arm, and the top of its head, Blue gave Tails a thumbs up as he flew over head "You got it!"

When suddenly he heard the sound of the drill being launched at him, Blue quickly jumped out of the drills way and ran while the two chaos powered energy cannons came out of the underneath of the Tornado and began to fire at Eggman distracting him just enough to keep his attention away from Blue. The Hedgehog racked his brain and tried to figure out how he'd hit all four of those weak points, that's when he saw that the Mega-Loop could launch him towards the mech suit, Blue grinned before speeding off towards the Mega-Loop Mountain and running up it, once Blue reached the top he saw that Tails and the Tornado barely dodged an incoming swipe from the Egg Dragoon Mrk.2, Blue took in a deep breath before jumping up and blasting off into his Drop Dash, he rocketed around the Mega-Loop before he was launched off of it and towards the mech. Eggman turned around to see Blue rocketing towards him and the mech suit. He raised the gatling gun arm up in an attempt to hit Blue away but luckily the Hedgehog was to fast for the mech to properly block, so he cut right through the gatling gun's elbow joint, Eggman yelled out in anger and frustration as he watched the gatling gun arm down to the ground. Blue hadn't planed on it, but he landed on the wings of the Tornado "Whoa! O- Oh hey Tails."

The Fox stared at Blue slightly confused "J- Just attack Eggman."

Blue nodded before jumping off of the plane and down to the ground, Eggman glared down at Blue and made the mech suit fire the drill at him but the Hedgehog dodged the attack and ran forwards, he jumped up slightly and he Drop Dashed forwards as the drill flew past his face and back to right arm of the mech. Blue passed underneath the mech suit as Eggman got himself distracted by Tails, Blue unballed himself and skid to a halt as he stared up at the middle of the spinal region of the mech, he then began to ran forwards before jumping up into the air and cutting through the mech's spine, Eggman felt the mech suit shudder as its lower half fell apart underneath him "Agh! How?!"

Tails chuckled slightly but didn't answer as Blue landed on the ground and stared up at the top of the suit. He thought to himself " _Now how do I get up there?_ "

That's when the mech dodged an attack from the Tornado and saw a small mountain that was just tall enough to give Blue a good shot at the top of the Egg Dragoon Mrk.2, Blue grinned before he ran forwards heading towards the mountain as the mech swiped at the Tornado out of anger and frustration, Blue climbed up the side of the mountain and reached the top of it, he looked down at the mech suit and called out "Hey! Egghead!"

Eggman turned around in the Egg Mobile and looked up to Blue as he jumped up off of the top of the small mountain and yelled out "Guess who!?"

Blue then balled himself up into a Spin Ball and headed straight down towards the mech suit which caused Eggman to yell out in anger yet again. Blue crashed into the top of the Egg Mobile's glass case and the entire Egg Dragoon Mrk.2 shuddered and groaned, Eggman then ejected his Egg Mobile out of the top of the mech suit before it crashed onto the ground and exploded due to its damage, as that happened Blue landed on top of the Tornado and him as well as Tails chased after Eggman. The two watched as the Egg Mobile crashed into the ground underneath them, the Tornado landed in front of the Egg Mobile and the two heroes got off of the Tornado and ran over to Eggman, as they did Tails said "Yeah! We did it!"

They then stopped in front of the Egg Mobile as Eggman opened up the glass case of the Mobile and said "Hohohoho. Look at you, fighting like you've got a chance to win! It's adorable!"

The Egg Mobile then shuddered as it shifted slightly, once it did Eggman continued "Almost makes me feel bad that we're never going to do this little dance again."

Blue looked up to Eggman "What do you mean Egghead?"

Eggman rolled his eyes "In just three short days, my plan will eliminate the bothersome lot of you!"

Tails sighed "Wait? Three days? Eggman you're starting to sound like Neo Metal Sonic. Although you're plan is probably worse then Metal's so why don't you tell us."

Eggman shook his head "If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise! You know what they say, the anticipation of the end is worse than the end itself."

Eggman then began to reboot the Egg Mobile's systems while saying "Maybe not in this case though."

The Egg Mobile then began to lift off of the ground which caused Blue and Tails to step forwards, but Eggman quickly slammed his fist down on a button and a bright flash came out of the Egg Mobile's front headlights and blinding the two slightly. As their vision cleared the two saw Eggman fly away cackling as he did. Blue shook his head while saying "He still uses that thing?"

Tails looked over to Blue slightly confused "Huh?"

Blue shrugged "Back in my first adventure, in Final Zone. Egghead hit me with a bright flash so he could escape, it didn't work though."

Tails nodded before he then began to lead Blue over to the Tornado. As the plane began to take off Blue looked over his shoulder and said to Tails "What do you know about a Phantom Ruby?"

Tails shrugged slightly as the plane began to fly over the Zone "It.. Sounds like an ancient relic like the Chaos Emeralds, or the Master Emerald."

Blue nodded "Yeah.. Well do you remember when I told you about how I got here?"

Tails nodded and Blue continued "So, the name of that gemstone is the Phantom Ruby. I don't know how your Eggman got it, or if he made it, but that thing is dangerous. Like, do you remember that rouge Eggrobo I told you about?"

Tails nodded again and Blue continued some more "Well that guy's name was the Heavy King, and once he got his hands on the Phantom Ruby he snapped. He kept on rambling on about alternate realities and how all other Heavy King's had failed to defeat me but he was going to be the one to do it. Heh, well he didn't do it. Anyways we just have to keep our guards up, that thing is really dangerous."

Tails nodded yet again and he said "You got it Blue."

The Hedgehog grinned and gave Tails a thumbs up. There was a long minute or two of silence between the two of them when Blue suddenly spoke up "So, where is this Mystic Jungle place?"

Tails answered with "It's actually on West Side Island. Near the old Chemical Plant, and Aquatic Ruins Zone."

Blue nodded "Awesome, so it should pretty familiar to me shouldn't it?"

Tails shrugged "Guess so."

And with that the two began to fly over the ocean heading towards West Side Island as they did.


	11. The Savior of Park Avenue

**THIS STORY HAS REACHED A LITTLE OVER ONE THOUSAND VIEWS!**

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November 4th, 11:25 P.M. Green Hill City, Resistance Base, sleeping quarters.

* * *

Rookie opened his eyes groggily and stared up at the bottom frame of the top bunk. He could hear the sound of Sonic's snoring above him, and when Rookie rolled over onto his right side he saw that Matty had gotten off of the top bunk and snuggled up to Newt on the bottom bunk, Rookie groaned slightly and quietly, as he sat up in bed, he then got out of it and slipped into his gear, and as he put on his glasses he heard the sound of feet shuffling by the quarters' door. Rookie walked out into the base's hallway and he suddenly felt like something was off, that something was wrong, but he shook that feeling off and walked into the Briefing Room to try and figure out how long he'd been asleep for, but once the automatic door slid open he saw that the room was in shambles, almost everything in there was broken, the table had been split in half, the wall of monitors had been destroyed, and all of the various crates in the room had either been knocked over, thrown across the room, or broken into pieces. Rookie crept into the room not sure what had happened, why no one woke him up to stop whatever happened, or who did it, that's when he saw the tip of Amy's boot poking out from behind a crate, he ran over to the crate and saw Amy laying motionless on the ground, he quickly scrambled over to her and knelt down next to her.

He then put his hand on her chest to try and feel for a heartbeat but there wasn't anything, she wasn't breathing either. He then quickly looked over her body and saw that she wasn't bleeding from anywhere, she didn't seem to have any broken bones, it just looked like she had dropped dead suddenly, Rookie then stood back up and turned around only to see Silver lying in a pile of broken crates, he was also motionless, what happened here? what was going on? Rookie quickly looked around the room and saw that Knuckles, Vector, Espio, and Charmy all were lying in or on something in the room, motionless and dead. Rookie quickly ran for the door "Someone! Help!"

But he heard something that made him skid to a halt in freeze there in fear, he heard the sound of Infinite cackling, Rookie slowly turned around and saw standing at the far end of the room in front of him was Infinite himself "So, the child show's his face yet again. Tell me, will you accept your fate and die at my hands? Or will you go running with no direction?"

Rookie couldn't breath, his heart was beating a thousand times per second, his legs were shacking, his mouth went dry and the only thing he could squeak out was "H- How?"

Infinite then began to walk forwards as the two halves of the table moved out of his way "What? You don't think Eggman knows where this base is? How naive can one get? I simply walked in and.. Well.. Did all of THIS."

He glanced around the room making sure to highlight the dead bodies. Rookie tried to back away from Infinite but he quickly felt himself pinned against the wall behind him. Infinite chuckled as he loomed over Rookie "You look different.. But you still haven't changed, you're still that scared child I found in the city, only, I had made a mistake then. And I plan on correcting it now."

Infinite then slowly raised one of his hands up to his mask and he carefully began to take it off "Tell me. What do you expect to see under this? The face of someone you once knew? The face of a machine? The face of someone just like you, an ordinary person turned something they shouldn't be? Or, do you expect to see a monster?"

Infinite then finally took of his metal mask and chunked it away. Rookie's eyes widened in shock as he stared at a face he could only imagine in his nightmares, Infinite's unblinking eyes were a deep blood red, his mouth was wide and filled with jagged teeth, his ears were pointed like horns, and his face looked as if it was made out of some kind of black smoke or fog, Infinite slammed his left hand against the area of the wall next to Rookie's face "It's truly a gift, isn't it? This face. I only show it to those who I've deemed worthy of actually staring into death's eyes."

Rookie wanted desperately to look away, but he couldn't, he was practically pressing himself against the wall at this point as Infinite continued to loom over him. Tears began to form in his eyes which caused Infinite to say "Don't cry. This should be painless, although, I haven't tested this myself so I wouldn't know."

He inched his face closer and closer to Rookie's as he did, which only caused the Wolf to shake his head as if he could actually say no to any of this.

Infinite chuckled, his face now inches away from Rookie's "I knew you were a cowered. But even some of the other cowereds I've dealt with have put up a fight."

Rookie's eyes began to water even more as Infinite's sour breath filled the Wolf's nose. Rookie tried to crouch down and hide but Infinite suddenly grabbed onto his shoulder and physically pinned him against the wall "While I enjoy watching you suffer. It's time for this to end."

Infinite then began to open his mouth, and it only got wider, and wider, and wider. More and more teeth appeared in the Jackal's maw as it got wider, Rookie then began to try and flail around to get away from Infinite but he could barely even more at this point, and in an instant Infinite lunged forwards and bit Rookie's head off.

* * *

5:45 P.M.

* * *

Rookie bolted up right in his bed and let out an almost blood curdling scream which caused Matty to be startled awake and to also fall off of the top bed of her bunk, all while Newt herself also bolted up right a black sleeping mask placed over her eyes. Matty jumped up onto her feet "AAH! WHO GOES THERE!?"

She had her fists clenched and brought them up in a defensive stance, Newt was still very delirious from her suddenly being woken up "Matty? What's going on?"

Rookie scrambled out of bed "G- Guys! I- I just had nightmare! There's nothing bad going on right now!"

Matty put a hand on her chest trying to calm herself down "Rookie! You scared us!.. Are you alright?"

Rookie nodded "Yeah, I'm fine."

Newt took off her sleeping mask and saw that Sonic was still asleep "How could he sleep through all of that?"

Rookie turned around and looked at the top bunk behind him right as Sonic let out a slight snore "Well.. He hadn't slept in a year so I doubt he'd stop now because of some yelling."

Matty nodded as she yawned "What time is it?"

Rookie shrugged as he picked up one of his boots "I don't know. But, I need to take a walk around the base."

Matty nodded again as she sat down next to Newt on her bed "You do that.. I'm gonna get some more sleep."

She then yawned and leaned against Newt's shoulder which prompted the Bear to begin rubbing the side of Matty's body lovingly. Rookie walked out of the sleeping quarters while readjusting his glasses so they'd sit right on his face. Rookie looked around the hallway and felt a shiver run down his spine as he remembered the piercing, glowing, red eyes of Infinite and at the same time he heard the slightly muffled voice of Amy say "Eggman's army has broken through! They're in the city! We need to get these people out of there and push them back!"

Through the Briefing Room's door. As he did Knuckles said to Amy "Who can we send? Silver and Bunnie still needs time to heal, and Sonic as well as the rest of the Special Forces still needs to get more rest before we can put them back on the front lines."

Suddenly the voice of Espio came over Amy's computer "We've engaged enemy forces at Seaside Hill. We can't spare anymore!"

Then a different unknown voice to Rookie came over the computer "This is the 8th Unit! We're pinned down under heavy enemy fire!"

Rookie spoke up suddenly "I can go! I can help the people in the city!"

Knuckles hadn't noticed Rookie yet so when the red Wolf suddenly spoke up Knuckles was shocked, before he let out a sigh and said "Man, looks like I've got no choice. Okay, Rookie, this is a tough one for you. Head into the city and save those civilians!"

Rookie nodded before Amy walked over to him and handed Rookie a small device that had a screen that showed a map of the city, and his Wispon, on that device/map there were red dots placed around that showed areas where civilians were in danger. Rookie then turned around and ran out of the room while Amy returned to her computer and Knuckles returned to staring at the multi-monitor wall. Rookie stepped out of the freight elevator and into the empty office building before using his grappling hook to pull himself out of the building and into the city, Rookie made his hook let go of a building he had used as leverage to jump out of the Resistance Base and then quickly grappled onto a street light before swinging off of it and landing on the ground and running forwards. He could hear the sounds of various kinds of gun fire ranging from energy lasers, to bullets, being fired off in the distance and as he ran he brought his hand up to his earpiece and tuned it to the Resistance Secured Network, right as he did the voice of Amy came through his earpiece "I need a status update on the people who couldn't evacuate in time!"

Rookie then quickly used his grappling hook to turn down a sharp turn in the road, but once he turned he almost smashed face first into the side of a building so he quickly detached his hook, jumped up onto the wall, kicked off of it, and grappled up to the roof. As Rookie grabbed onto the side of the roof he heard the sound of Espio's voice come over the Secured Network "Espio here. We're engaging enemy forces, and can't search for civilians right now!"

Rookie looked around the area of the roof and saw that he couldn't jumped to any other roof around him, but, he could jump to a large balcony that was over to his left. As Rookie backed up to get a good running start the sound of a Resistance soldier came over the Network "The fighting is too fierce for us to help out as well!"

Rookie then ran forwards and jumped off of the roof. He landed on the balcony and staggered slightly before regaining his balance, right at the same time he heard the sound of robotic footsteps coming towards him, he turned around and saw Egg Pawns stomping towards him from inside of the luxury apartment that the balcony was connected to. Rookie quickly held up his Wispon and pulled the trigger destroying the Egg Pawns, he then ran through the slightly scorched apartment and jumped through a broken window and to the park grounds below, once he landed the voice of Knuckles came over his earpiece "Sounds like you're our only hope Rookie. The rescue is in your hands!"

Rookie nodded before running through the park and towards a set of stairs, standing on those stairs were a few Egg Pawns who Rookie quickly destroyed with his Wispon, he then ran up those stairs and towards a bridge that had been broken in half, Rookie jumped off of his end of the broken bridge and as he soared through the sky he looked over to his left and saw a massive Egg Titan being hit by artillery shells "Those are Death Egg Robots! They're being mass-produced now?!"

Rookie then quickly looked forwards and saw that he wouldn't make it to the other side of the bridge so he used his grappling hook to pull himself to the other side. As he climbed up onto the bridge he saw several Egg Walkers staring down at him. Rookie quickly held up his Wispon and the long legged robots then suddenly turned around and ran, while Rookie himself began to run forwards the voice of Vector came over the Network "Uh oh. This ain't good. Might be too much for Rookie to handle."

Then the voice of Knuckles responded with "Still, we can't just ignore them. You got this, right Rookie?"

The red Wolf nodded and said "Yes sir, Knuckles sir-AAAAAAH!"

While Rookie answered Knuckles' question he failed to pay attention to where he was going so Rookie tripped over himself and fell down a long set of stairs. As Rookie picked himself off of the ground, groaning as he did, the voice of Knuckles came back over his earpiece "Rookie? Are you alright?"

Rookie nodded "Y- Yeah, I just tripped."

But in an instant Egg Pawns began to form a ring around him, Rookie quickly scrambled up to his feet, he just as quickly scooped up his Wispon and quickly spun around in a circle, pulling the trigger as he did, he had closed his eyes while he spun around so when he opened them again after stopping he saw that the only thing that remained of the Pawns were piles of scrap metal. Rookie grinned before running forwards and into what looked to be an apartment district of the city, once he entered the district that small device began to beep rapidly, he skid to a halt and at the same time screams from civilians in danger ran out from behind on of the buildings next to him, Rookie quickly ran over to the backside of the building and saw that a family of two parents, and four kids, were being cornered by around fifteen Egg Pawns. Rookie quickly jumped up into the air and used his grappling hook to fling himself to the front of the hoard of robots. Once he landed he spun around and faced the hoard "Stay away from them!"

He then quickly pulled his Wispon's trigger and began to mow down the hoard, as soon as the last Pawn exploded he turned back around and ran over to the family "Are you alright? Do any of you need help?"

The father of the family shook his head "No we're fine. Thanks to you!"

Rookie smiled "It- It's no problem, but you need to get out of here now, never know when more robots are gonna show up."

The mother nodded before she began to lead the rest of the family out of the alley they were in. But at the same time, Rookie could hear the sound of what sounded like rushing water come from underneath him, the sound ran past his feet, and up into the two apartments on either side of him, that's when suddenly two jets of water blasted out of a window from the right apartment, and the left apartment, the jets of water hit each other and formed into a ball of water that then fell to the ground in between Rookie and the family, once the ball of water hit the ground it began to change shape, it eventually changed into Chaos. Rookie looked past Chaos and to the family "Keep going!"

The family then bolted away from him as Chaos began to stomp towards the Wolf, Rookie clench on the Wispon grew tighter out of fear and anger "Y- You don't s- scare me!"

The water god didn't respond, instead it lunged at Rookie who panicked and quickly fired off his grappling hook, which dragged him away from Chaos and up into the air, as the water god turned around Rookie fired his Wispon at Chaos. The water god's entire body began to steam as it let out a high pitched screech. Rookie dropped back down onto the ground and continued to fire his Wispon at Chaos's body which only angered the creature more, it threw one of its arms out at Rookie but, due to the fire, the arm fell apart before it could reach Rookie so he just continued to fire and to also walk closer and closer to Chaos, once he was within punching distance of the god Rookie stopped firing his Wispon and Chaos attempted to use that moment to attack but it was too weak, so instead Rookie quickly headbutted the brain floating around in Chaos's head and the creature collapsed down into a motionless puddle of water. Rookie stared down at the puddle and slowly he was filled with a sense of giddy pride "He. Ha, hahahahah. I did it! I- I can't believe I actually did that!"

Suddenly the voice of Espio came over his earpiece "Nice work! A fine display of skill."

Charmy then added "Wow, you really showed them who's boss."

Vector also said "Come on, how am I gonna top that?"

Rookie's smile only grew bigger as he heard the Chaotix give him praise. He quickly spun back around and began to run towards the next area of civilians that had been cornered by enemy forces, he grappled over the top of a building and landed on the ground behind another hoard of Egg Pawns that had cornered a small group of teenagers, Rookie made quick work of the robots and, after pointing the teens towards the right direction, moved on to the next group of civilians. While Rookie ran the voice of a Resistance soldier came over the Network "We've broken through enemy lines! The rescue is underway."

Then Espio's voice also came over the Network "We secured an escape route so there is a safe way out."

Then Knuckles said something that made Rookie's already big smile, grow even bigger "Thanks to Rookie, things are turning around! Let's keep this momentum going!"

Rookie then grappled up to the top of a building and quickly ran across the roof before jumping off of it and grappling over a large pit that lead into the city's sewers. As he continued to run Knuckles' voice came back over the Network "Update from HQ! The enemy's on the run!"

Espio then added "Mission complete! Well done everyone!"

Rookie glanced over his shoulder and saw that he had indeed completed his mission, the civilians were escaping the city, and he had lured a large hoard of robots away from the base, once he looked forwards again he saw a large hoard of Egg Pawns and Buzz Bombers in his way, he quickly held up his Wispon and took them out before stepping onto the Red Gate Bridge. He glanced over his shoulder again and saw that the large hoard of robots were still following him, so, he jumped over the side of the bridge and used his grappling hook to swing himself back up onto the bridge behind them, sadly the robots didn't have enough time to react before they were reduced to scrap metal. Rookie then said into his earpiece "Mission accomplished."

Knuckles responded with "That was impressive, but we still have a lot of work to do!"

Then suddenly the voice of Sonic came over his earpiece "Great job! I knew you could do it if you believed in yourself!"

It kind of surprised Rookie to hear Sonic's voice, but what didn't surprise him was the voice of Vector saying "Nice moves, but if you hog all the glory, how am I going to look good?"

Rookie chuckled slightly as he turned around and began to walk back into the city "Don't worry Vector, I'm not that cool."

Sonic scoffed "Nonsense! You're way past cool!"

Rookie chuckled again while also shacking his head "What ever you say."

He then grappled onto a building and used it to launch himself forwards.


	12. Casino Lights Over the Aqua Road

**NO, NO. SPIDERDOM, YOU KEEP ON MAKING LYRIC JOKES, I'M FINE WITH IT. ANYWAYS, ENJOY THIS CHAPTER.**

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6:12 P.M. West Side Island, Mystic Jungle.

* * *

Blue took in a deep breath of the fresh air that rushed past his face as he rode on top of the Tornado "Aaahhh. I never get tired of that smell." he glanced over his shoulder and at Tails "Feels good to fly again Tails?" but the young Fox wasn't paying much attention to Blue. Instead, he was busy saying to himself "I can't believe it! Sonic's alive! I think I must've subconsciously used up all of my wishes for the rest of my life, but, it's worth it!" Blue turned around and crouched down before tapping Tails' forehead "Dude, you done mumbling to your self?" Tails nodded "Y- Yeah. We're over the Mystic Jungle right now so we're gonna be landing soon." Blue nodded before standing back around and also turning back around to face forwards. A minute or two latter and the Tornado touched down in a small clearing in the dense jungle, Blue hopped off of the plane as Tails climbed out of the pilot seat "Come on, we have to go find the Resistance base so we can tell Sonic about Eggman's plan. Whatever his plan is. Although, I don't really know where the base is exactly." Blue furrowed his brow in confusion as he stared at Tails "What do you mean, you don't know exactly where the base is?" Tails rubbed the back of his head nervously "Well... The last time I listened in on a Resistance meeting the Mystic Jungle's base was being planed and at the time no one knew where they'd put the base so.. But one of the most promising locations is right around here." Blue shrugged "Good enough." he then turned around and ran Tails chased after him.

Blue and Tails ran through the forest and past the ruins of temple covered in neon lights, they were on a large island in the middle of a giant lake, on the shore of the lake there was also the ruins of an ancient also neon covered city. While the two ran Tails said "According to what I remember the base should be here." Blue nodded before the two sped forwards heading towards the shore of the lake island, Blue skid to a halt at the water's edge and he stared at the other shore a good ways in front of him "How do we get over there?" Tails then also skid to a halt next to Blue. Tails looked over to Blue "I can fly us over there." Blue nodded "Alright." Tails then lifted up off of the ground with his twin tails before Blue jumped up and Tails grabbed onto his hand, while Tails flew over the lake he said "You're a lot lighter then my Sonic." Blue glared up at him "Hey!" Tails chuckled slightly "Sorry." the two then landed on the other side of the shore before they sped forwards again heading deeper into the jungle. As they ran Tails looked around, a look of concern growing over his face "Hmm. No sign of the base around here." Blue nodded "Might be closer to the center." Tails also nodded when Blue suddenly stepped on a patch of mud and slipped, he tumbled down a hill before falling into a small canyon, Tails looked over the side of the slop that led down into the canyon "Are you alright!?" Blue nodded as he brushed any mud that clung to his quills off "Yeah, I'm fine.. I'm starting to think that your world's ground hates me." Tails sighed when Blue spun around and ran towards the other side of the canyon.

As Blue ran his foot stepped on a pressure plate and various neon purple bumpers came out of the ground. Blue skid to a halt in front of one of the bumpers before inspecting it for a moment, he could be able to use the bumpers to fling himself up into the air, Blue grinned slightly before jumping up into the air and hitting the top of the bumper, once he hit it the bumper let out a loud ping before he was flung high up into the air. Blue tried to grab onto the ledge of the canyon but he just barely missed it, when suddenly Tails grabbed onto Blue's hand, he then pulled Blue up onto the ground and the Hedgehog said "Thank's Tails." the Fox smiled "No problem." the two then took in a deep breath before running forwards again, they then entered an ancient city covered in neon lights and as they ran through the city Tails said "I think the base is somewhere near here. I doubt the Resistance would sit still for long so we need to hurry." Blue nodded before the two then passed by a large temple completely covered in bright flashing neon lights, the two came to a stop next to that bright temple before they both looked at each other and Blue said "This the base?" Tails hesitantly looked at the temple before looking back over to Blue and saying "Y- Yeah it should be." the two then began to walk towards the temple. Once they did they saw that any Resistance tech that was once in there had been completely destroyed, Blue sighed "Of course." Tails shook his head "This.. This isn't good." Blue nodded while the two began to walk back out of the temple/destroyed base when suddenly Blue saw something "Hey! There's like a.. Door or something over there!" he then pointed to a metal door that was built into the side of a large stone hill that sat several feet ahead of them, Tails sighed "Seeing as how this base is destroyed. What ever's behind that door is our next best bet on finding Resistance soldiers." Blue nodded before the two ran forwards heading towards the door.

* * *

6:07 P.M. South Island, Green Hill City, Resistance Base Lower Floor.

* * *

Rookie yawned as he stretched his sleepy body out while he walked down the hall. He was heading towards the med bay so he could check on Silver, even though Rookie doesn't know the first thing about Silver, although he did seem like a nice guy, he still wanted to make sure he was alright and as he walked through the hall the med bay's automatic door slid open and Silver stumbled out of it "N- NO! I'M N- NOT GETTING INJECTED WITH ANYTHING L- LIKE THAT!" Rookie jumped back slightly in shock and he saw that Silver was wincing slightly as he stumbled out of the med bay. Espio then ran out of the med bay "Silver! Calm down!" Silver winced as he backed away from Espio "No! I'm n- not gonna calm down! She w- wants to inject me with that.. THING!" Espio sighed "It's just an anesthetic. You have five broken ribs and need to get them fixed." Silver coughed slightly as he put his hand on his side "I- I don't even know what that i- is!" suddenly a tall rabbit dressed in medical scrubs walked out of the med bay and said to Silver "It won't hurt. Come back inside please." Silver coughed again before finally saying "...F- Fine, just.. D- Don't hurt me." the tall rabbit nodded before leading Silver back into the med bay.

Espio sighed before finally realizing that Rookie was there "O- Oh, Rookie. Didn't see you there." Rookie stepped forwards "Aren't ninjas supposed to be hyper aware of their surroundings?" Espio rolled his eyes before glancing into the med bay. After a moment of silently standing there Espio said "Should've known that some one from a destroyed future wouldn't know the first thing about modern medicine." Rookie nodded "Yeah... Hey, who was that rabbit lady?" Espio looked back over to Rookie "Her name's Vanilla. She's a single mother and she was brought here by Vector. It was one of the only times he forced Knuckles to give him that mission." Rookie nodded again "Did.. Her child make it?" Espio nodded also "Cream was sent to Angle Island, its one of the only areas in the world that Eggman hasn't touched yet. Thanks to Knuckles." Rookie cocked his head to the side in confusion "Huh?"

"Well.. Knuckles used the power of the Master Emerald to fly the island high up into the air, and he also used it to surround the island in a cloud of electromagnetic energy that messes with any of Eggman's scanners so it seems like that cloud is just a normal cloud." Rookie nodded yet again before letting out a yawn and saying "I had come down here to check on Silver but I see that he's fine.. Ish.. So, I'm heading back up to the first floor and going to bed." Espio grinned slightly "You do that." Rookie nodded slightly before turning around and walking towards the elevator. Once it reached the top floor of the base Rookie walked out of the elevator and began to walk towards the sleeping quarters when suddenly Amy stepped out from inside of the Briefing Room and saying to Rookie "You're gonna want to hear this." Rookie sighed before he was led into the room, as he did he heard Rouge, who was standing in front of Amy's computer, say "The system is picking up a couple of strange readings. They're coming from the laboratory, the one where Sonic fought Infinite." Charmy then said "It's probably another of Eggman's robots." Rouge shook her head "No. Life readings Charmy, two of them. Defiantly not robots." Knuckles just then noticed Rookie "Hey! Rookie! Sorry to spring this on you suddenly but, we need you to head into the Mystic Jungle and check that out." Rookie sighed as he nodded "You got it." he then turned around and walked out of the Briefing Room.

* * *

6:13 P.M. West Side Island, Mystic Jungle.

* * *

Rookie jumped down a cliff and used his grappling hook to swing himself safely onto the ground when Amy then came over Rookie's headset "We've picked up the two life readings near the lab up ahead." Rookie then ran forwards and into what looked like a mining tunnel that had been dug in the side of a small mountain by Eggman. At the same time Knuckles said "If they aren't robots, what are they?" Espio then said "If they're enemies, taking them both on might be too big of a task for Rookie." Rookie shook his head "Nah I got it." he then silently said to himself "I hope." and right as he said that he heard the sound of a muffle explosion go off behind him, and when he glanced over his shoulder he saw that the mining tunnel was begging to shake and that its wooden supports were about to give out. He quickly came to the end of the mining tunnel and jumped out of it before the tunnel collapsed in on its self, and as he flew through the air he saw that he was heading straight towards a rushing river, and once he landed in it the current began to drag him down the river, at that same moment Amy said over his headset "Watch out! The current is pretty strong! This place is enough to make anyone dizzy. It might be better to just go with the flow." then suddenly the original versions of the Moto Bugs fell into the river and out of the branches of trees that hanged over him.

Rookie tired his best to not bump into the Moto Bugs and stay a float in the river when suddenly he saw that there was a fork in the river dead ahead. Rookie quickly used his grappling hook to make himself go down the left path and once his hook let go of the tree it had grabbed onto the river turned sharply to the right and Rookie almost crashed into a Moto Bug, the river then turned sharply to the left and this time he did crash into a Moto Bug which caused him to be bumped away from the robot and the robot itself to be bumped into a jagged rock that stuck out from the river, once the robot hit the rock it exploded and Rookie was forced to continue on by the current "Why is this thing so strong!?" sadly his question was answered when he saw that he was heading straight towards a water fall. Rookie quickly jumped out of the river and used his grappling hook to swing himself to the ground in front of him, once he landed on the ground the voice of Amy said "They sure went to a lot of trouble to make this lab hard to find." an entire hoard of Egg Pawns and Nebulas stood in Rookie's way, he quickly pulled out his Wispon and began to take out the robots, at the same time Knuckles said "They must be doing experiments they don't want people to know about." Rookie quickly jumped up into the air and dodged one of the Egg Pawn's fire.

Once he landed he fired off his Wispon and took out the last robot. He then ran forwards and towards a cliff face, he quickly used his grappling hook to scale the side of the rock formation and reach the ground above him, while he ran forwards robots began to come out of the dense jungle on either side of Rookie, but he had to ignore them at the moment, he was almost to the lab. Rookie quickly reached a steep drop that lead into a canyon, and before he reached the edge of the canyon wall he jumped up into the air and used his grappling hook to fling himself down into the river that rushed through the canyon, while he was yet again swept away by the river's current the voice of Knuckles said "Well look at you. Having fun in the water?" Amy chuckled slightly "What? Jealous you can't play on the slide. Knuckles?" the Echidna stammered out "Th- This is no time to lose focus.. That's all! Uh, be sure to give it all you got Rookie." the red Wolf was about to nod but he was stopped when the river suddenly dipped downwards and began to zig and zag back in forth. He was practically being tossed around in the river while Moto Bugs fell out of holes in the canyon walls and into the river, while he was being tossed around he'd crash into a robot or two and send them flying out of the river due to just how sharp of a turn each bend was, suddenly Rookie reached another sharp turn but he wasn't prepared to turn it so when the current forced him to pass by the bend he tumbled forwards in the water and he was momentary submerged in it.

Due to him being submerged in the water he wasn't able to hear the sound of the water fall that the river was leading to. So once he reached it he was tossed out of the water fall and he could see that he was falling straight towards another canyon filled with a blazing forest, Rookie quickly thrust his hand out and grappled over to the canyon wall in front of him, the same wall that the lab was on. He grabbed onto the ledge above him and quickly climb up onto the ground over him, as he stood up straight a gust of cold wind blew over Rookie's wet fur which caused him to shiver "S- Stupid w- wet fur." even though most of the jungle was on fire the wind in the area was still freezing cold, especially when you're covered in soggy fur, Rookie began to try and dry himself off as best as he could while also looking around the exterior of the lab. Those life signs weren't anywhere to be seen, but something that did catch his eye was the shin of a gemstone sitting in front of the lab's metal door, Rookie walked over to the gem, finally warm enough that he stopped shivering, and picked it up so he could get a good look at it, what he did see was that the gem was almost see through and that if you look into the insides of it the gem looked as if it had a galaxy trapped inside of it, as he stared at it the gem suddenly began to glow a bright red and it emitted the same sound Infinite made when ever he used energy based attacks. Rookie quickly threw the gem onto the ground, but when he went to turn around he saw that the gem was still in his hand, Rookie tried to pull the gem out of his right hand but it was stuck to him, he tried to throw it to the ground as it continued to emit that sound, but just like last time it wouldn't budge.

That's when he realized it wasn't stuck to his hand, it was just stuck to his glove. He quickly peeled off his leather glove and let it fall to the ground, sadly he could still see that the gem was attached to it "Look's like I'm going to have to get a new glove." just then the gem's glow began to pulse in tune with a sharp beeping sound, it continued to beep, and beep, and beep, all the while Rookie backed away from it cautiously when suddenly the gem exploded and Rookie raised his hand up to shield his eyes and glasses, he felt a sharp pain enter the middle of his hand which caused him to clench it into a fist and let out a groan of pain. Rookie opened his eyes and looked at the front of his hand, embedded in the center of his hand was a shard of the purple gemstone that had just exploded, and as he looked at it in complete shock and fear it let out that horrible sound one last time before going silent. Rookie tried to pull the gem out of his hand but it was stuck to him, it was attached to him, he clenched his fist again before he saw that his glove was still intact "Until I can figure out what just happened. I gotta hide it." he then picked up his glove and slipped it over his right hand, once he did he heard the sound of something running towards him, he quickly spun around and saw a smaller, and lighter blue colored, Sonic come to a stop in front of Rookie.

Blue motioned at Tails, who was up in the air, to land on the ground. Once Tails landed he inspected Rookie as he said "Have we met before?" Rookie shook his head "N- No, we haven't met before. But I have heard about you, you're Tails the Fox! Hero of Station Square!" Blue looked over to Tails "Hero of Station Square?" Tails shrugged, an embarrassed blush growing on his face "I saved a city when I was younger, it's one of the events that gave me a big boost in confidence." Rookie nodded "Yeah! And my dad's family is from Station Square so I've heard all about you!" Blue stared at Rookie "Are you always like this?" Rookie shook his head "No, I'm only like this because Tails is one of my childhood heroes! You're one of my childhood heroes too Sonic and if we weren't on the Egg Station when I met you I would've reacted this way as well- That reminds me.. What the heck is going on!? Why is there a smaller version of Sonic!?" Blue grinned slightly "You can call me Blue. And as for why I'm here... I'll let Tails cover that cuz I don't really understand myself." Tails then said "Well. Blue here comes from an alternate reality where everyone seems to be younger then we are. How he got here, I'm still not sure about that yet." Rookie let out a slight sigh of relief "That's good." Tails just then noticed the Wispon lying on the ground "Wait! Is that one of my Wispons!?" Blue glanced over to his weapon "Y- Yeah?" Tails smiled as he said "That means you're apart of the Resistance! That means you can take us to Sonic! Our Sonic!" just then it all clicked in Rookie's head "You're the life readings I was sent to investigate!" Blue furrowed his brow as he said "I.. Guess so?" Rookie quickly ran over to his Wispon and said "Then let's go!" Blue nodded "Where we going though!"

"The Resistance base in Green Hill City." Tails grew a confused look on his face "I thought that the base was surrounded, that's why I didn't take Blue straight to it." Rookie shook his head as he picked up his Wispon "No, in fact, the robots that surrounded the base have been moved deeper into the city." Tails and Blue then looked at each other before Tails said "Then I guess we're heading back to South Island." the two then turned around and began to walk away from Rookie who then said "Hey, wait! The way to the Resistance transport is this way!" Blue glanced over his shoulder "Me and Tails used the Tornado to get here! You think we swam all the way to West Side?" Rookie wasn't sure how to answer that so instead he followed Tails and Blue as they walked to the original Tornado.

* * *

6:23 P.M. South Island, Resistance Base.

* * *

Sonic yawned as he rested his head in his hands, wishing to still be asleep as he did. He was asleep just a minute or two ago but he was rudely awoken by Rouge who had told Sonic to go into the Briefing Room, the reason for that, was because Knuckles apparently received a transmission from Rookie who told the Echidna that he had a surprise for Sonic, although the Hedgehog wasn't sure if any surprise was worth keeping him awake after all he's been through. That's when Knuckles suddenly tapped his shoulder "Here they come." Sonic raised an eyebrow "They?" when suddenly the room's automatic door slid open and Tails yelled out "SONIC!" the Hedgehog quickly stood up from the chair he was sitting in "Tails!" the two then ran towards each other while Blue and Rookie silently entered the room behind them. Sonic and Tails both pulled each other into a large hug, Tails then said "I was sooo worried! I- I- I thought you w- were..." he felt himself begin to cry as Sonic began to rub the back of Tails' head "You worry too much. Heh. Look, I'm perfectly fine." Tails nodded as he began to bury his face into Sonic's chest "I- I- I missed you so much.. Y- Your de- disappearance.. Made me lose s- so much h- hope.." Sonic continued to rub the back of Tails' head "Don't worry. I'm fine, I'm back now, and we're gonna kick Egghead's but." Tails nodded again before the two let go of each other and Blue walked over to them.

Sonic looked over to Blue "Oh, it's been generations since I've seen you. You okay?" Blue nodded "Yeah I'm good.. Also.. I have never met you before." Sonic furrowed his brow in confusion "Huh?" Tails then stepped forwards "The smaller Sonic, or, Blue. Isn't actually your younger self. He's a younger Sonic from another reality completely." Sonic nodded "Cool. So Blue, while you were flying through realities did you run into a purple cat by any chance?" Blue shook his head "Nah. But I did run into a purple Sonic. She was weird."

"Really?" Blue shook his head again "Nah just messing with you." Sonic chuckled slightly and Tails spoke up "So, me and Blue have some good news, and bad news." Sonic looked over to his friend "What's the good news?" Tails grinned slightly "The good news is that you're safe. The bad news is Eggman said he has some plan that would destroy us all in three days." Sonic nodded "Three days, huh? Sounds a lot like Neo Metal, besides, a lot can happen in that time!" Tails nodded when suddenly the monitors on the back wall all began to beep. Knuckles and Amy ran over to the multi monitor wall and Knuckles said "Ha! We've done it! Our spies in the Mystic Jungle have reported that Eggman's robots have retreated from the area! We did it! The Mystic Jungle is the first part of the world to be liberated!" the room was then filled with yells of celebration and at the same time Sonic then yelled out "I'm really tired! I'm going to bed!" he then suddenly turned around and walked out of the Briefing Room leaving the others in the room rather shocked. Sonic let out a sigh of relief as he laid down on the top bunk "Good to see you again Tails. Good to see you're safe." he then raised his hand up and stared at his shoes "Nah.. To tired." he then laid his head back down and closed his eyes before falling to sleep, meanwhile Rookie took off his glasses and stared at them for a moment "Hey, Amy." the pink Hedgehog walked over to him "What's up Rookie?" he showed the cracked lens in his glasses "They got damaged while I was in the Mystic Jungle. Can you fix them for me?" Amy nodded "I'm on it!" Rookie then handed her his glasses and she then began to make her way over to a crate so she could get a replacement lens.


	13. Shadow Over the Sunset Heights

November 5th, 7:12 A.M. Resistance Base.

* * *

Sonic opened his eyes, yawned, and stretched out his still waking limbs. He grinned slightly while silently thinking to himself " _Finally, I've gotten a good, and long, night's sleep._ " he then quickly jumped out of bed and landed on the ground safely, and surprisingly quiet, he looked over his shoulder and saw that Rookie was still sleeping on the bottom bunk, he then looked forwards again and saw Newt and Matty were also both still asleep in their beds. Sonic wanted the others to get just as good of a sleep as he had just gotten so he decided that he'd leave them be, Sonic then walked out of the sleeping quarters and into the hallway where he almost ran into Blue, the two Hedgehogs narrowly avoided colliding with each other before Blue said "You're up early." Sonic stared down at his inter-dimensional-younger-counterpart and said "You're up too." Blue shrugged "I haven't been tired since I got to this dimension, and the one time I tired to sleep I could only get a minute or two of sleep." Sonic nodded "Fair enough." the two then walked into the Briefing Room where they saw Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, a Silver who's arms, legs, and some of his torso were covered in bandages, as well as Tails all standing around the room's grey table.

The two Hedgehogs walked over to the table as Knuckles said "So, Tails. You say that you know where Infinite's power comes from?" Tails nodded before saying "I do, you see Eggman has some how gotten his hands on a gemstone called the Phantom Ruby, how he got it, I'm not sure. He might've made it, he might've found it." Sonic then suddenly spoke up "I knew it! That gem attached to Infinite's chest is his source of power." Tails nodded "That is indeed his source of power. Sadly, I don't know what it can do." Knuckles then said "Sonic, you've fought Infinite, so have you Silver, tell us. What did he do?" Silver was the first one to say "When I fought Infinite he used telekinesis to throw things at me. And then he some how transported me to some strange world where I was almost killed by giant, grey, Death Egg Robots." Sonic nodded "Infinite was also able to force me into that world. Although I wasn't almost killed by those things, instead I was almost impaled by spikes that burst out of the ground." Tails took in the information he had just received and began to spin it into a theory "Hmmm. I think I've come up with something." Amy looked over to Tails "What is it?" Tails looked over to her "Well.. The Phantom Ruby that Eggman has can either, alter this reality completely. Or it can create a fake reality that gets layered over our own." Knuckles nodded slowly "And which one is most likely to be the answer?" Tails sighed "I'm not sure yet. But as of right now it's probably safe to assume that the Phantom Ruby's self generated reality. Is actually a virtual reality." Knuckles nodded "Alright." and at the same time Rookie walked into the Briefing Room, rubbing sleep out of his eye as he did.

Knuckles then said "Alright Tails. Let's move on from the Phantom Ruby and talk about Eggman's plan." Tails nodded. As Knuckles said "Phantom Ruby" the small shard of purple gem embedded in Rookie's right hand glowed silently through his glove, Rookie quickly pulled his hand away from his face and hid it behind his back, and at the same time Tails nodded before saying "Eggman said when the plan is completed. We'll all be wiped out." Knuckles nodded "I don't like the sound of that. Normally I'd just laugh at an Eggman plan, but he's already conquered most of the world, so... What's this plan of his?" before Tails could say anything the voice of Vector's voice came over Amy's computer "Hey, I hate to butt in on your important meeting, but we're under attack! Shadow is taring through our troops! We need reinforcements!" Sonic grumbled "Shadow... The last time I saw him he was fighting for Eggman." Knuckles looked over to Sonic "That doesn't make sense. Why would Shadow help the enemy of G.U.N?" Silver finally spoke up "Perhaps he's being controlled by that strange power?" Sonic then said "Whatever it is, I'll figure it out!" Knuckles nodded "You got it Sonic, head up into the city and take down Shadow." Sonic nodded before running out of the Briefing Room and out into the city.

* * *

7:15 A.M. Green Hill City.

* * *

Sonic ran through the streets of the damaged and burning city. When he passed by a street that overlooked a lower area of the city, at the same moment Vector said over Sonic's earpiece "What the heck!? A whole army of Egg Titans!?" Charmy then said "Oh no! There are so many of them!" Knuckles suddenly said "Hurry Sonic! We can keep them in check. But not for long." Sonic nodded before boosting forwards and down the road that overlooked the lower parts of the city "That'll work! I'll find Shadow and be back in no time!" he turned a corner and saw that Egg Pawns had all lined up ahead of him. Sonic boosted through the robots and ran up a set of stairs before jumping up into the air and Homing Attacking into Buzz Bombers that hung over his head, he then Stomped onto the ground and boosted forwards again, crashing through some Egg Pawns that stood in his way, Sonic then reached a bridge that had been broken in half and he quickly jumped off of his side of the bridge and landed on the other side, as he flew through the air Knuckles said "This many Egg Titans? Come on, seriously!?" once Sonic landed on the other side of the bridge he balled up into his Spin Ball and rolled down the slopped street before standing up and boosting forwards again as Vector said "I'm not one to complain, but that's a lot, right? Way more than we can reasonably take on." Sonic then jumped up into the air at just the right moment so he could Stomp into the center of a small circular park that had a few Egg Pawns in it.

Sonic the boosted forwards and into an apartment district of the city, at the same time Amy said "Listen up! Shadow has been sighted! Apparently he's traveling above the city at high speed!" Sonic nodded before he continued forwards, boosting still as he did. Sonic then jumped up into the air and scaled up the side of an apartment's wall before climbing up onto the roof and jumping off of it and onto the ground bellow the building, once Sonic landed he boosted forwards and took out a line of Egg Pawns that stood in his way, after he did that he scaled up the side of another building before jumping onto the remains of a highway and boosting forwards, as he did Amy said "The last sighting was just up ahead. Be careful Sonic." the Hedgehog nodded and jumped off of the highway and back into the apartment district, Sonic continued to run forwards before reaching a gated off community of destroyed apartments, and standing in front of him, arms crossed over his chest, was Shadow the Hedgehog. Sonic skid to a halt before walking towards the black and red Hedgehog "All right Shadow! What's the deal?" Shadow took his arms off of his chest and said "Infinite and Eggman have shown me the way to truly bring peace to the humans Maria loved." Sonic yelled out "What!? You think that the only way to bring peace to humanity is through Roboticization?! Are you crazy!?" Shadow scoffed at Sonic "Ha! The fact you don't see it is proof enough that Eggman is right." Shadow then charged towards Sonic and the blue Hedgehog took an aggressive and defensive stance.

Shadow then jumped up into the air and tried to kick Sonic with the bottom of his rocket shoes. But before he could someone yelled out "Chaos Control!" and time froze all around the two Hedgehogs, a second Shadow jumped out from behind the gated community's gate, he quickly spun around in the air and kicked the second Shadow in his face right as time unfroze, the first Shadow skid across the ground as the second one landed in front of Sonic, which caused him to say "Another Shadow?" that first Shadow stood up and charged towards the second one but before the fist could attack the second one he ducked underneath the first's punch before jumping up into the air and kicking the first in his face yet again. That kick tore the first Shadow's head off and sent it falling to the ground, grey liquid poured out of the first Shadow's body and disconnected head before the second one said "That was a fake." Sonic's eyes widened in shock "A fake? How?" Shadow glanced over to the first Shadow's body before it fell to its knees and then onto the ground "It was a Shadow Android created by Eggman." Sonic also stared at the Android's body as grey liquid continued to pour out of the top of its body "Why create an Android when Eggman can just have Infinite create a fake himself? Infinite can do that right?" Shadow nodded as he crossed his arms over his chest "Infinite can create fake clones of anything, or more accurately. Infinite can create virtual reality projections. They have mass and form, but no heart and soul. Why Infinite didn't create a Phantom Clone I don't know." Sonic nodded "Huh, so Tails was right. The Phantom Ruby does create a reality that layers over our own." Shadow nodded again "But that isn't the only problem. They may not be real, but their powers are as formidable as the originals. From what I've seen, Infinite can create an unlimited number of them." Sonic sighed "So fight after fight, he can just keep cranking out counterfeits?" Shadow nodded again "Exactly. As it stands, there's no way we can win this." Sonic rolled his eyes "Of course we can win this! We all ways do! We.. Just.. Haven't figured that part out yet." Shadow sighed before the two Hedgehogs heard the sound of an Egg Titan begin to walk towards them, Shadow quickly grabbed onto Sonic's arm "It's not safe here, we have to go." Sonic tired to say something before Shadow quickly teleported himself and Sonic out of the city.

* * *

7:19 A.M. United Federations Main Land, the Ruins of Westopolis.

* * *

In a bright flash of blue light Sonic and Shadow both appeared in the ruined Federations city. Shadow let go of Sonic's arm and the blue Hedgehog said "Where are we?" Shadow then began to walk away from Sonic which only caused Sonic to follow Shadow, the black and red Hedgehog answered with "We're in the ruins of Westopolis." Sonic looked around the almost flat plains of the demolished city, all that laid around him and Shadow was piles of rubble from destroyed buildings, any cars that were still in the city had been crushed by the rubble off of the buildings, and the only thing left almost intact was the street that Sonic and Shadow walked across. Sonic and Shadow continued to walk through the demolished city when Sonic suddenly said "I just realized. Shadow, you kicked a fake faker in the face." Shadow sighed, shook his head, and rolled his eyes before another silence fell in between them, Sonic and Shadow passed by a semi-standing wall when Sonic spoke up again "Where are we even going?" Shadow glanced over his shoulder "Some where safe." Sonic then said "Nowhere's safe. Eggman rules the world." Shadow looked away from Sonic "He may rule this place, but his army isn't here. So it's safe here." Sonic glanced around their surroundings before saying "I guess you're right." Shadow suddenly stopped and turned to his left.

Sonic also stopped next to Shadow before the red and black Hedgehog crouched down and pulled open a hatch in the sidewalk. Shadow got onto a a ladder and began to climb down into the underground room, and Sonic followed him, the two got off of the ladder after each other before Shadow began to walk towards a large metal door, once he reached the door he began to input a code into an electronic lock meanwhile Sonic looked around the underground room and saw that they were in what remained of an underground parking garage. Suddenly the metal door shuddered before sliding open allowing the two Hedgehogs to walk into an unlit room, once they entered it the metal door slid closed behind them and the lights in the once unlit room turned on and almost blinded Sonic, once his vision cleared up he saw that four humans in combat armor had guns pointed at Sonic and Shadow, the lead human said "Entrance code required!" Shadow then suddenly said "1901" and after a moment of them not moving, the humans lowered their weapons and the lead one took off a helmet that covered up a large portion of his face. That human was none other than Abraham Tower, the leader of the formerly standing Guardian Units of Nations, Abraham put his gun down and set his helmet down "Sonic, Shadow, it's good to see the two of you are still alright." Sonic stepped forwards "I can say the same to you Commander. Shadow, what's going on here?" Shadow looked over to Sonic before saying "This is what's left of G.U.N." Sonic then took another quick look around the room and saw that it looked like a shabby, hand made, command room that looked similar to the Resistance's Briefing Room.

Abraham and the other remaining G.U.N. soldiers began to walk deeper into the room and so did Sonic and Shadow. The two Hedgehogs walked along side each other before Sonic said "What exactly are we doing here?" Shadow looked over to Sonic "We need to lay low for awhile. Eggman will be looking for us after we took out his Android." Sonic sighed "How long is, awhile? I need to get back to the Resistance soon!" Shadow nodded "I understand Sonic. But if you go back into the city now you'll, you won't make it past the city's boarder." Sonic shook his head "Oh come on Shads! I'm the fastest thing alive! I can not only make it past the boarder of the city, I also won't be noticed by any of those ro-butts in the city!" Shadow scoffed at Sonic "I know you're cocky, I know you're stupid, but this is a whole new level for you." Sonic rolled his eyes before hopping up onto a table and sitting down on it "Fine. We'll lay low for now. But once its clear enough to go back into the city, I'm heading straight into it." Shadow nodded "Fine." Sonic nodded, a slightly grin growing over his face.

* * *

7:20 A.M. South Island, Green Hill City, Resistance Base.

* * *

Rookie stared at his gloved right hand and at the spot where the shard of that gemstone, that he knows is called a Phantom Ruby Prototype. He still hadn't told anyone about it, he didn't know how the others would react to the news, he didn't know what would happen, but the only thing he did know was that he never wanted to try and use the shard, he never wanted to try, he never even wanted to see that shard again either. Suddenly Matty tapped Rookie's shoulder and said "Something wrong?" Rookie lurched forwards in shock, he buried his hand in his rather long chest fur "U- Uh.. Nothings wrong, technically." Matty sat down in a chair next to him "Technically?" Rookie nodded as he took his hand out of his chest fur "I was just.. Thinking about my family." Matty nodded slowly "Oh.. What were they like?" Rookie grinned slightly as he began to unbury his childhood memories "Well... My mom grew up in this city, she was a Cat who had purplish red.. And my dad was a red Wolf like me who grew up in Central City. He actually moved here to be with my mom after she spent a summer vacation in Central City, a few years latter they had a set of triplets." Matty's eyes widened in shock ever so slightly "Wow, wait, you're a triplet?" Rookie nodded "Yeah, I'm a triplet. Me, my brother Danny, a blue furred wolf, and my sister Fuchsia. Who's a purplish red cat like my mom." Matty smiled widely "Cool! Man you're family sounds awesome!" Rookie chuckled slightly "Yeah. I also have an adopted brother who's a light-ish celadon green bird. He's named Corvin." Matty's smile grew bigger "You're family just keeps getting cooler and cooler the more I learn about them!" Rookie laughed slightly before Newt sat down in a chair on the other side of Rookie.

The red Wolf looked over to Newt "If you don't mind.. What's your family like?" Newt readjusted the way she was sitting in the chair so she could look at Rookie properly "My mom and dad were both Bears.. Although my dad's a Polar Bear who has a birth-defect that made his fur very light brown. They both grew up in Holoska, specifically a small fishing village on the eastern coast of the main land, they've known each other since they were kids. But they didn't become a couple until after my dad broke his leg and spent his days healing in my mom's house." Rookie grinned "That was a really sweet way of the two getting together.. But.. What about you, when did you come into the picture?" Newt sighed "You see. I'm not to proud about this but, my mom actually got pregnant with me while my dad was healing his leg at her place. They didn't get married until half a year before I was born... But even though I'm not proud of the fact that they got married after my mom got pregnant, the marriage didn't change their relationship at all. Marriage to their home town was... Optional, in fact most of Holoska practices the same thing, all except for the capital but I've never been there." Rookie nodded before looking over to Matty "And your family?" Matty's face lit up before she said "I'd just like to get this out of the way real quick, both of my parents are plain old white Dogs, and they both grew up in Spagonia. Except my dad grew up in the Franc provenances while my mom grew up in the Scotol regions. They actually met up in college, sadly they both had to drop out halfway into their degrees because of economic issues. Luckily they bounced back quick, my dad got a job as a mechanic at an auto-shop near Professor Pickle's college, and my mom got a job at Chiens Cuire Des Choses!" Rookie's eyes widened in shock.

"No way really?! The REAL Chiens Cuire Des Choses? Like the best Spagonian restaurant to ever exist?" Matty nodded confidently "Yep, although you said it wrong but that's fine. Anyways, they got married soon after they bounced back and, of course, they eventually had me." Rookie chuckled slightly "Looks like all of our families are awesome." Matty giggled "I guess so." and Newt nodded "Yeah." the three of them then just sat there talking to each other, and all of that talking made Rookie realize, Newt and Matty were the only real friends he's made since he was five, and he was able to become friends with them during a war too which made the fact that he was friends with them even better. Eventually Rookie said "How much does anyone know about Sonic's family?" both Newt and Matty shrugged, but Matty was the only one to say "I don't think anyone really knows. From what I understand he's kept his private life and hero life separate ever since he caught the attention of the public eye." Rookie nodded "I'm guessing the same goes for Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and basically all of the other heroes of the planet?" Newt nodded "Yeah, although Knuckles doesn't have any family. He's the last Echidna alive." Rookie looked over to their Echidna commander as he inspected the multi-monitor wall "That sucks." Matty nodded sadly "Yeah, I bet it does." Rookie felt the area where that Phantom Ruby shard was begin to grow an irritating and itchy sensation before Rookie reluctantly said "Do.. Either of you know what happened to the Chaos Emeralds?" Newt raised an eyebrow in confusion "What do you mean?" Rookie shrugged "Like.. Knuckles is connected to them or something, so if he really wanted to end this war quick and easy he'd just have to summon them and go Super, but.. He hasn't." Matty also shrugged "I don't know.. Maybe they don't work that way, maybe you can't out right summon them. Maybe Knuckles is only connected to them when their in our world and not somewhere else." Rookie sighed "Yeah.. Maybe." honestly he wasn't sure what he was expecting them to say.

He had just hoped that he could get his hand on an Emerald and try to use it to remove the shard, but sadly it didn't seem like Knuckles could summon them like Rookie was hoping. Suddenly Matty said "Hey! Do you guys wanna go hang out with the SF?" Newt and Rookie looked over to Matty and both said in unison "What?" Matty shrugged "Well they are our friends right? So why can't we hang out with them? We're not on a mission, and we aren't preparing for a mission so we should be fine." Newt shook her head "You see the thing is, they're called the Special Forces for a reason. They've got to always been prepared for anything, even when the ordinary soldiers, that's us, aren't preparing." Matty rolled her eyes before standing up "Oh it'll be fine. Besides none of the SF are jerks so they won't kick us out if we try to hang with them." Rookie sighed as he also stood up "She is right. Even if they are trying to prepare for a secret mission they wouldn't yell at us or anything, they'd just politely tell us to leave." Newt thought about it for a moment before she finally stood up as well "Alright, let's go." Matty smiled widely "Yes! Follow me!" Matty then ran out of the room and the other two followed after her, as they left Knuckles chuckled slightly to himself and said "Kids." before returning to inspecting the multi-monitor wall. The elevator reached the third level of the base and the three of them all got off of it and began to make their way to the Special Forces' living quarters, Rookie looked around cautiously "What- What else is down here?" Matty shrugged "Weapons, explosives, things like that. No big deal." Rookie looked over to Matty, eyes widened in surprise "No big deal!? You just said this place is housing explosives!" Matty shook her head "No, I said this FLOOR is housing explosives. Specifically that room." she pointed to a closed door to Rookie's left as they passed it.

Eventually the three reached a door that had a sign sitting over it that read "Special Forces Special Bunks." Rookie looked over to the other two kind of confused "Huh?" Newt chuckled slightly "It was Nicole's idea." Matty then opened up the door and they walked into the sleeping quarters that was much larger then their own. Sally looked over to the other three in surprise "Oh, didn't know you were coming. What's up?" Matty stepped forwards "We're just here to hang out." Sally nodded before she stood up off of her bunk and put the book she was holding down on her bunk "Alright. Nicole, Bunnie, and Antoine are both in the exercise room." Sally pointed to a door at the end of the room and Rookie said "You've got your own personal exercise room?" Sally nodded "Yeah, we had to do something with the extra space. And we had some left over exercise equipment meant for Team Dark but.. They- They aren't going to be using it any time soon." Sally then lead the other three into the exercise room where they were met by the sight of Nicole in a pair of athletic shorts, and an athletic tank top, on a peddling away at an exercise bike. Bunnie was standing in front of the bike and she was holding a stop watch "Come on darling! You've almost got it!" Nicole looked like she was going to pass out at any second but she kept up her fast peddling speed, as for Antoine, he was sitting off to the side just watching the two ladies so he was the first one to see Sally and the other three enter "Ah, Sally, Rookie, Newt, Matty. It is good to be seeing the three of you again." he stood up and walked over to the four of them, while he did Matty asked "What's Nicole up to?" Antoine glanced over to Nicole and Bunnie before saying "Nicole wants to up her stamina and Bunnie is helping her achieve zat goal." Matty nodded before Bunnie suddenly yelled out "Ah know you could do it!" she practically pulled Nicole off of the bike and into a bear hug while she yelled.

Sally chuckled slightly while she walked over to Nicole and Bunnie "Alright you two, calm down." Bunnie let go of Nicole and the tired Lynx finally got off of the bike properly "Thanks Sally." the Chipmunk smiled at Nicole "It's fine." she then turned around and Bunnie said "What's Matty, Rookie, and Newt doing here?" Sally's smile didn't leave her face as she said "Matty wants to hang out with us. And I think the other two are being dragged along side her." Newt shrugged "Kind of." Matty then lightly smacked Newt's arm with the back of her hand in retaliation. Sally looked at her fellow Special Forces agents before saying "So.. They wan't to hang out with us. So why don't we put them through one of our workouts?" Rookie realized quickly what was going to happen "Oh- Uh- N- No thank you, we're fine." he tried to back away but Newt quickly stopped him "Don't worry everything's gonna be fine. You're gonna love it, isn't that right Matty?" Newt looked over to Matty who nodded and said "Sure is." Rookie sighed and looked over to Matty, who mouthed "Run for it!" which only made Rookie more scared of the Special Forces style exercise he was about to be put through, Bunnie smiled "Great! Ah'll get the weights ready!" that defiantly didn't help Rookie's fear either, he watched as Bunnie pulled out a fifty pound weight which only caused Rookie to say "I'm going to die here." before Newt forced him and Matty to being heading over to the exercise equipment.


	14. Capital City Chaos

**AY, IZ ME.. MR. MEME, HERE TO TELL YOU THAT I'M TRYING SOMETHING NEW.**

 **SPECIFICALLY I'M TAKING THE COMPLAINT OF PARAGRAPH SPACING TO HEART AND TRYING IT OUT MYSELF.**

 **THIS MAY OR MAY NOT SUCK SO BARE WITH ME.**

* * *

8:21 A.M. Resistance Base, Special Forces Special Bunks, Exercise Room.

* * *

Rookie, who had been practically forced to lay down on a weight training bench, stared at the barbell that was being held over him by Bunnie and Newt. Rookie swallowed a lump of fear as Bunnie said "You ready?" he couldn't back out now, even though he wanted to "Y- Yeah, s- sure." Bunnie looked at Newt before Rookie reached up and grabbed onto the barbell's bell, Bunnie and Newt both slowly let go of the weight and Rookie strained to keep the barbell over his head. He could feel that the barbell was pushing against that shard in his hand and he could feel it begin to silently vibrate for some reason, Rookie began the process of weight training but sadly that wouldn't last long because he could feel that his arms were beginning to melt, he was also having trouble breathing so that wasn't helping either, Newt crouched down next to Rookie "Are you alright? You can stop if you want to." Rookie strained himself to say "I- I'm f- fine!" but he really wasn't, he could barely lift it up as he said that.

While Rookie continued to strain himself to continue to do his reluctant weight lifting the fear of him dropping the barbell on top of himself grew stronger and stronger. As that fear grew stronger the shard of the Phantom Ruby in Rookie's hand began to vibrate even more, and even stronger, he had to do something before the shard did something itself sadly that something was coming fast because Rookie could see that the gem was slowly beginning to glow through his glove, and as far as he could tell no one else had noticed yet.

He had to think of something fast, he had to. Luckily the voice of the Knuckles came over the base's PA system and said "I need everyone to come to the Briefing Room, now!" Bunnie and Newt both nodded at each other before grabbing onto the weight plates and letting Rookie let go of the barbell. Newt and Bunnie both worked together to put the barbell away before everyone walked out of the Special Forces Special Bunks and up to the Briefing Room

Once they entered the room they saw that the Chaotix had also entered the Briefing Room, and once the Special Forces, Newt, Rookie, and Matty entered the room Knuckles wasted no time in turning around and facing the group of soldiers "Listen up! We just got word that Eggman's forces are undermanned at his headquarters in Metropolis!" Espio walked over to the grey table and said "They're probably staging somewhere else as part of Eggman's plan. This could be our only chance to take the city." Knuckles nodded "Exactly! That's why we're focusing on a full frontal assault on Metropolis! I'm calling it ' _Operation Big Wave_ '!" Silver hopped off of a crate he was sitting on and said "Who cares what it's called? What's important is to have a well thought out strategy." Knuckles nervously scratched the back of his head as he said "I thought up this strategy in about a minute and a half." he sighed before continuing "We're going in hard and fast, and we're not going to stop till Eggman's army's destroyed. Sonic is busy fighting Shadow, but the rest of us can do this! We've got strength and the spirit to win. There's no finer group I'd want to fight with." Knuckles sighed "Sadly I can't fight along side you in Metropolis, but I will be guiding you from here with Amy and Tails." Vector stepped forwards "Ha! Great speech! Let's give Eggman an old-fashioned beat down!" Tails had been scratching the bottom of his chin while Knuckles talked.

"They have more in sheer numbers, so the idea of a quick, focused, attack isn't bad. We also have Blue, so I have no doubt we can do this!" Tails then walked forwards and over to the grey table "Also, if we can destroy the Phantom Ruby, we should be able to send the the other Sonic home! At least I hope so... This is all new territory for me..." Knuckles nodded an obvious smile on his face "Okay, let's head straight for Eggman's HQ! Time to save the world people!" the other soldiers in the room let out cries of excited agreement before running out of the room and out into the city where four transport trucks sat outside the base. Everyone climbed into the transport trucks and they quickly lurched forwards before speeding out of the city and towards Eggman's Head Quarters.

* * *

8:31 A.M. West Side Island, Metropolis Zone.

* * *

The transport truck that Rookie, Matty, and Newt were ridding in barreled down a metallic white highway and into the bright white city. Once they drove over the border of the city the truck ran over a spike strip and popped each of the tires truck and caused it to almost fall onto its side, Rookie, Newt, and Matty quickly jumped out of the truck and began to run forwards. While they ran Matty put her goggles and bandana over her face while Newt turned on her voice changing mouth piece, a missing shot from one of Eggman's ships in the Egg Fleet hit the area of the highway in front of them forcing the three to jump off of the street.

They quickly used their grappling hooks to swing themselves over to another highway underneath them. Once they landed the voice Knuckles came over the Resistance's Secured Network "All right! Time for Operation Big Wave! We'll surge forwards and sweep the enemy away!" Egg Pawns began to run towards Newt, Matty, and Rookie. The three of them took out their Wispons and began to mow through the robots in front of them while the voice of Eggman came through the hacked network "How absurd! What can that rabble do with an all-out attack? I'll smash them to smithereens!" the three of them then used their grappling hooks to drift past a turn in the highway when suddenly laser turrets sprout out of the highway and began to fire at them.

They dodged the lasers and quickly jumped off of the highway that they discovered had been blow apart. As they soared through the air Infinite appeared in between Rookie and Matty, Infinite looked over to Rookie and the red Wolf looked at Infinite as well, Rookie had a look of fear, while Infinite had a deadpan-esk look before Eggman said "Infinite! Activate the Phantom Ruby! Make them wish they'd never been born!" suddenly Infinite flew forwards and turned around to face the other three. Infinite then raised his hand up into the air and the Phantom Ruby went off causing gravity to change, Newt was pulled towards the building to her left, Matty was pulled towards the building towards her right, and Rookie to be pulled up towards a monorail above him.

While Rookie fell towards the monorail he passed by a massive metal head that was connected to a giant monster that's body looked like it was made of black water, it also resembled Infinite, if Rookie wasn't scared of Infinite now, he was defiantly terrified now. Knuckles then said over his earpiece "Stay calm! What you're seeing isn't real!" he then landed on the monorail and a Resistance soldier said "It's no use! Our troops are scattering in the confusion!" laser turrets sprouted out of the monorail and began to fire at him. Rookie jumped up into the air and used his grappling hook to swing over an entire line of laser turrets, once he landed Silver's voice came over the Network "This is bad! Our forces were all gathered together, and now they're plunged into chaos!" one of those massive Infinite monsters suddenly destroyed the section of monorail ahead of Rookie, fell off of the broken bridge and quickly used his grappling hook to fling himself into a building ahead of him.

Thanks to the strange gravity Rookie was stuck in once he entered the building he landed on the ceiling instead of the floor. As Rookie picked himself off of the ceiling Nebulas flew into the building and attempt to drop bombs on his head, but he was able to quickly roll out of the way of one of the bombs before he quickly jumped up into the air and use his Wispon to take them out. Once he finished destroying the Nebulas and after he landed on the ground he turned around and ran forwards, destroying more Nebulas that got in his way as he did when he suddenly came to a dead end that had been created thanks to the strange gravity. Then suddenly Infinite flew by the building and the Phantom Ruby went off again, that wave of energy caused the gravity to return to normal allowing Rookie to turn around and run forwards.

Egg Pawns then suddenly appeared in front of him and tried to fire at him. But he was able to take them out with his Wispon before they could, he then reached a door that led into a stairwell. He shoved the door open and ran down the stairwell to the lower floor where he was then met by laser turrets that came out of the floor and the ceiling, the laser turrets charged up and were about to fire before Rookie quickly jumped behind a pillar and hid behind it so that he could then wait for the lasers to be shut off just long enough to escape the building. Luckily a moment or two after he hid behind the pillar the turrets did just that, Rookie quickly ran out from behind the pillar and began to run towards a broken window ahead of him, and as he ran the turrets began to charge up again which forced Rookie to jump up and use his grappling hook to swing himself out of the building, once he flung himself out of the building Infinite flew by yet again, and the Phantom Ruby went off yet again, which caused the gravity to change yet again.

Rookie fell onto the side of a building and he heard someone yell at him "Rookie!" the red Wolf looked over to his right and saw Matty running towards him. Rookie ran over to Matty and the two stopped in front of each other, Rookie then said "Where's Newt?" Matty looked around and stammered out "I- I don't know. B- But we have to get out of here, now!" Rookie nodded "Yeah, let's go." he then turned to his left and ran forwards before jumping up into the air and using his grappling hook to pull himself over to a building in front of him. Matty then did the same as Rookie grappled to another building where he would then wait for Matty to catch up to him before running up the side of the building and towards its top. As they ran the voice of a Resistance soldier came over the Network "This is Eagle Squad! We're caught in enemy crossfire!" laser turrets then sprout out of the building ahead of them as a different soldier's voice said "Snake Squad requesting reinforcements!" Rookie and Matty jumped over a line of laser turrets as a completely separate soldier's voice said "This is Fox Squad! We can't hold out much more!" once they landed behind the laser turrets the voice of Sally came over the Network as well "This is the Special Forces! We've been pinned down by what looks to be a fake Shadow and a real Metal Sonic!" Amy then said "80% of our forces have been wiped out! And we've lost contact with the rest!" Rookie and Matty then jumped off of the edge of the top of the building when suddenly Infinite flew over their head and the Phantom Ruby went off again.

As gravity changed the voice of Vector came over the Network "One flip of the Phantom Ruby switch and everything falls apart on us!" Matty and Rookie landed on top of the building and quickly jumped off of it and down towards a set of train rails suspended in the air. As they fell towards the rails Knuckles' voice came over the Network "Rookie, Matty, and Newt are our only hope now." Rookie and Matty then landed on one of the train rails and began to grind across it. The train rail turned to the left and the two grinded across it and towards a docking station, sadly that docking station was destroyed by the hand of one of those Infinite monsters which caused Rookie and Matty to use their grappling hooks to swing themselves towards another set of rails bellow them and towards their right. They grinded across the train rails and towards another docking station when suddenly another Infinite monster destroyed it as well, the two of them fell off of the train rail and onto a highway bellow them, and as they did the voice of Knuckles said "Grr, we can't go on like this." once they landed the two began to run forwards as the voice of Espio responded with "As much as it pains me to say it, the best we can do now is to live to fight another day." as they ran Egg Pawns appeared in front of them and Matty quickly jumped forwards and used her Electric Wispon to destroy the robots.

While Matty destroyed the robots the voice of Charmy yelled out "Run for it!" right as Rookie and Matty returned to running. Rookie stepped forwards and used his Burst Wispons to take out two lines of Pawns standing in their way, once those robots were destroyed they entered some kind of gas station like area that's path curved just enough for the two of them to use their grappling hooks to turn the corner and continue to run forwards. As they ran out of the gas station the voice of Knuckles came back over the Network "Our Big Wave has washed out." laser turrets then sprout out of the highway ahead of them forcing the two to dodge any lasers that were aimed at them, at the same time the voice of Silver said "We haven't lost. Let's fall back and regroup." suddenly an entire line of laser turrets blocked their path and forced Matty and Rookie to jump over it and land on the highway behind the turrets.

A minute after they returned to running Matty skid to a halt and grabbed onto Rookie's arm forcing him to do the same. Rookie turned around and faced Matty "What? What's wrong?" Matty took off her goggles "W- We need to find Newt!" Rookie quickly looked around their surroundings when suddenly a grappling hook attached to the edge of the highway and Newt pulled herself up onto the highway. Matty ran over to Newt and so did the Bear, Matty quickly jumped up and Newt grabbed onto her before pulling each other into a kiss, once they pulled away from each other Matty said "Newt are you alright? What happened? Where did you go?" Newt spoke through her voice filtering mouth piece and said "After gravity changed randomly I ended up in some kind of building. After that I ran around aimlessly through the city until I got here." Newt then took Matty's goggles off for her and was about to pull her into another kiss when Rookie suddenly said "We need to get going! Knuckles has ordered us to retreat!" Newt nodded before putting Matty back down onto the ground.

The three of them then began to run forwards again when suddenly Infinite landed on the road ahead of them. Except he wasn't paying any attention to the three of them, instead he put a hand on top of his mask and said "More ants to crush, I wonder if this world can offer me a real challenge." but he finally did notice them when he heard the sound of the three of them skidding to a halt and Rookie letting out a gasp of fear "And as if to answer, the world sends me trembling children." suddenly Infinite instantaneously sped towards Rookie in a flash of red light. Newt and Matty backed away from Infinite and Rookie froze in place due to his fear, Infinite's eyeless side of his mask somehow glared into Rookie's soul as he said "Are you going to fight and die here? Or, run away in fear again?" Newt stammered out "R- Rookie Wh- What's he talking about?" Infinite chuckled slightly as Rookie backed away from him "You haven't told them? You truly are pathetic." Matty clenched her fists and stepped forwards "No one calls Rookie pathetic!" Infinite rolled his eyes as he floated off of the ground.

He crossed his arms over his chest and said "Fine, you are ALL pathetic." Matty growled at Infinite before jumped up into the air and ignited her Wispon. She spun around in the air and whipped Infinite's stomach, then his back, as she fell back down towards the ground Infinite clenched his fists and once Matty did land on the ground, her back foot was then surrounded by a red cube. Newt yelled out "Matty!" before running forwards, but she was stopped by a wall of red cubes that appeared out of nowhere and blocked Newt and Rookie off from Infinite and Matty. The white Dog tried to free her back foot from the cube as Newt took out her Cube Wispon and began to slam it against the wall of cubes "Rookie! I need your help! We need to get to Matty before Infinite does something to h-" suddenly Infinite snapped his fingers and the red cube shattered, and so did her foot.

Matty screamed out in absolute pain as she fell down onto the ground. Newt yelled out Matty's name before slamming her hammer against the cube wall again, but much harder then before, Rookie ran over to Newt's side and used his Wispon to try and help Matty destroy the wall as well, Infinite then opened up his left hand and lifted up which caused Matty to be surrounded by a red aura before she was lifted up off of the ground, Infinite then held out his right hand and Newt yelled out "No wait! Please don't hurt her! Please!" Infinite chuckled as he looked over his shoulder and at Newt "...Begging won't get you anywhere." he then looked at Matty again before a bolt of energy shot out of his palm and into her chest. The bolt of energy blasted Matty back and she landed on the ground, she bounced off of it, landed on it again, and tumbled across the highway until her body came to a stop, that is where it would then remain, motionless.

Newt let out a blood curdling scream of no before rearing her hammer back and slamming it against the cube wall again. But this time her hammer burst through the wall and it crumbled in front of her and Rookie, the two then began to run towards Infinite and Newt yelled out "You monster!" as they ran, but then Newt was lifted up off of the ground and Infinite turned around to face her "Don't worry. You'll get to see her again very soon." Infinite then swiped his hand to the left and Newt was thrown away from the highway. The only thing left of her on the highway was her hammer, which she dropped as she was thrown away, Rookie raised his Wispon up and aimed it at Infinite "I'll say it again. Are you going to tight and die here? Or, run away in fear again?" Rookie's arms shook in fear, Infinite then suddenly made Rookie's Wispon fly out of his hands and off of the bridge "Maybe that will help you make your decision." Rookie stumbled back as fear began to eat him up inside.

But he couldn't give up, Matty died because of him, Newt had died because of him, he had to fight so he could avenge them. So what Sonic would say to him if they were both in this situation "Hey, don't be scared! This is your moment to shine!" Rookie clenched his right fist "Keep going. Don't let your fears own you!" Rookie then clenched his left hand before stepping forwards and taking a confident stance. That only caused Infinite to sigh "Fine. I will teach you fear, then pain, and then... Well, at least the fear and pain will end." Infinite then activated the Phantom Ruby which caused a blast of reddish orange light to come out of the gemstone and to transport the two of them away from the highway and to somewhere else entirely in the city.


	15. Vs Infinite

**I'M STILL MESSING AROUND WITH HOW I WRITE STUFF, SO KEEP ON BARING WITH ME.**

* * *

8:36 A.M. Northern Part of Metropolis Zone.

* * *

Sally, Nicole, Bunnie, and Antoine all ran through one of Metropolis's massive white skyscrapers when suddenly Infinite fly by the building and the Phantom Ruby went off. The gravity around them changed and Sally fell onto the ceiling, Bunnie fell onto the window to everyone's right, Antoine fell onto a pillar that stood on everyone's left, and Nicole was almost dragged out of the building as she fell towards a broken window in front of everyone, but Sally was able to quickly grab onto Nicole's hand before she was sucked out of the building.

Sally then pulled Nicole up and the Lynx grabbed onto the ceiling as if it were a rock wall. Sally then faced the rest of her Special Forces soldiers "We need to figure a way out of here and to the rest of the Resistance's soldiers in the city."

Antoine nodded "Yes we do, but, how are we going to be doing zhat?"

Sally sighed as she stared at the her friends, each of them were stuck in a different state of gravity, they couldn't get far like this "We.. We'll figure something out."

Just then Infinite flew by the building yet again, and the Phantom Ruby went off yet again as well. Gravity almost immediately returned to normal for everyone which caused them to fall onto the floor and off of whatever they were on. Nicole groaned as she stood up and rubbed her back "Looks like we didn't have to figure anything out after all."

Bunnie nodded "Yeah, now let's get going!"

Sally also nodded before turning around and running towards that broken window, and the rest of the Special Forces chased after her. Sally quickly jumped out of the window and used a plasma based grappling hook that Nicole had made to swing herself down onto a highway below the building, and the rest of the Special Forces followed after her, once on the highway they quickly ran forwards, but as they ran the voice of Resistance soldiers came over the Secured Network "This is Eagle Squad! We're caught in enemy crossfire!"

Suddenly Infinite flew over head again and the Phantom Ruby went off as well, but unlike last time nothing seemed to have happened.

"Snake Squad requesting reinforcements!"

The Special Forces continued to run forwards and suddenly the highway came to a stop inside some kind of shopping mall like building.

"This is Fox Squad! We can't hold out much more!"

The Special Forces skid to a halt in the middle of the building before Metal Sonic burst through the glass ceiling above them. The ultramarine blue robot stared at the SF with its unblinking digital eyes before Antoine drew his sword, Bunnie pulled out a blaster from inside of her brown jacket, and Sally ignited two blue plasma blades that came out of the bottom of her blue bracelets.

The three of them then charged towards Metal Sonic while Nicole stayed back so she could prepare the Wispon she had taken just for this mission. Bunnie fired an energy bolt at Metal but the robot quickly raised its arm up and blocked the energy shot, but that left it open for an attack which was something that Antoine took advantage of, he quickly slashed at Metal Sonic's side which caused the robot to turn to face Antoine which yet again left it open to an attack.

Sally quickly jabbed her right plasma blade at Metal and the blade grazed over the robot's left shoulder joint. Metal Sonic's torso joint clicked twice before its entire upper-body spun around with its arms out stretched, Antoine jumped back from the spinning arms of Metal Sonic, and Sally did the same, except her jacket had three slashes cut in it from one of Metal's hands. Bunnie returned to firing at Metal Sonic while Nicole finally activated her Asteroid Wispon, Antoine and Sally both took turns slashing at Metal Sonic when finally Nicole aimed her blue and yellow weapon at the robot and yelled out "Look out!"

She then fired a bulky circular object at Metal Sonic and at the same time Sally and Antoine quickly jumped out of the way of the projectile. The object hit Metal Sonic's head and the robot staggered backwards, Nicole continued to launch the projectiles at Metal's head as she slowly inched closer and closer to the robot at the same time. One of the Asteroid projectiles hit Metal's shoulder and caused the robot to spin around and fall onto its knees, the robot let out several whirs and beeps. Nicole was about to fire another one of the objects at Metal Sonic when suddenly they heard the sound of the Phantom Ruby going off again, the Special Forces looked around the strange building expecting to see something try and attack them, but nothing happened and there wasn't anything there either.

Suddenly Metal Sonic stood up again and the Special Forces all locked their eyes on him again. Sally quickly lunged forwards and tried to stab at Metal's side but something, or someone, yelled out "Chaos Spear!"

And suddenly a spear made up of energy that looked as if it was electricity flew towards Sally's head. She quickly spun around and raised her right blade up to block the spear and once it connected with Sally's blade the plasma weapon flickered rapidly before shutting off completely. Everyone looked at towards the back of the building and saw a figure walking towards them, the figure's image shuddered and distorted randomly as cubes fly into the figure and its image slowly began to become clearer and clearer. Until finally the image of the figure shuddered one last time before the image of Shadow became clear, Antoine readied his sword and aimed it at Shadow "What is he doing here? Shouldn't he be in Green Hill City?"

Sally tried to reignite her right blade as she said "No, that's not the actual Shadow, that's some kind of copy."

Sadly she couldn't reignite her blade so instead she quickly pulled out her communicator and said into it "This is the Special Forces! We've been pinned down by what looks to be a fake Shadow and a real Metal Sonic!"

When suddenly Shadow scatted forwards and Metal Sonic lifted up into the air, Antoine tried to get in Shadow's way and slash his sword at him, but the fake Shadow quickly tucked and rolled up into a Spin Dash. Shadow rammed into Antoine and the Coyote's legs were swept out from underneath him, as Antoine fell onto the ground the fake Shadow jumped out of his Spin Dash and quickly came to a stop in front of Bunnie. Metal Sonic charged up its chest beam reactor and it aimed its reactor at Nicole as she attempted to shoot Metal with one of her Asteroid projectiles.

Nicole held up her Wispon and tired to fire at Metal Sonic while the fake Shadow quickly disarmed Bunnie. The fake Shadow quickly grabbed onto Bunnie and he threw her over his shoulder and onto the ground, as the fake Shadow pulled his fist back as he loomed over Bunnie he heard the sound of Nicole's Wispon begin to fire. He quickly jumped up into the air and spun around so that he could face Nicole before yelling out "Chaos Spear!"

He then threw a bolt of pure Chaos Energy at Nicole's Wispon and once the spear hit the circular weapon a small blast knocked the Wispon out of her hands and Nicole onto the ground. Metal Sonic's torso joints then all clicked before a massive beam blasted out of its chest and at the Special Forces, the fake Shadow then landed back on the ground and he quickly tried to stomp his foot on Bunnie's face but she was able to quickly roll out of the way and grab onto her blaster once she stopped rolling. Antoine quickly jumped out of the way of Metal's beam and once Antoine got up off of the ground he ran over to Nicole and began to help her up "Are you alright?"

Nicole nodded slowly as she stood up "Y- Yeah I'm fine."

Antoine smiled and nodded before they both heard the sound of Metal Sonic's beam turn off. Sally quickly ran towards the fake Shadow and she attempted to jab her remaining blade at his head but the copy was able to quickly dodge the blade before he quickly used his rocket skates to move behind Sally. The fake Shadow then quickly wrapped his arm around Sally's neck and he then used that leverage to flip Sally over his back and onto the ground, Shadow then attempted to break Sally's arm but Antoine quickly lunged at him with his sword drawn. Shadow let go of Sally and just as quickly he grabbed onto Antoine's blade and pulled the sword out of Antoine's hands, the fake Shadow then quickly began to slash Antoine's blade at Antoine himself.

The Coyote backed away from his own sword as the fake Shadow slashed it at him. When suddenly Metal Sonic landed on the ground behind Antoine, it then grabbed onto Antoine's arm and forced him to go down onto the ground, at the same time Bunnie fired her blaster at the fake Shadow. Each of the energy bolts actually hit the fake Shadow, and Metal Sonic saw that, the robot then quickly broke Antoine's right arm before lifting up into the air and flying away from the fake Shadow and the SF, Antoine yelled out in agony as his broken arm fell onto the ground while at the same time the fake Shadow began to clench his hands into fists. Red electrical looking energy began to arch off of his body as the fake Shadow began to slowly turn around and face Bunnie, Sally, and Nicole.

The fake Shadow began to stomp towards the three of them as red energy began to arch off of his body. The fake Shadow raised his clenched hands up and Antoine tried to stand up when suddenly the fake Shadow yelled out "Chaos! Blast!"

His entire body began to glow bright red before he lifted up off of the ground and hovered in midair before a massive blast of red energy came out of him. Nicole, Bunnie, and Sally were blasted out of the building and Antoine was blasted farther into the building. Sally strained herself to open her eyes and once she did she saw the fake Shadow pick up the unconscious Nicole and Bunnie before he teleported away in a bright flash of red light, Sally strained herself to then stand up as Metal Sonic flew out of the top of the building she was once in, she stared into said building and saw Antoine lying on the ground surrounded by fire. She was able to quickly stand up and run back into the building, once she reached Antoine she quickly fell onto her knees and turned Antoine over to see that the entire right side of his body, from above his knee to the top of his head, was covered in burn injuries.

Nicole cupped the left side of Antoine's head "Antoine? Antoine? Antoine!?" he was just barely breathing, and she couldn't wake him up. She quickly pulled out her communicator "Some one, please! Antoine's hurt, Bunnie and Nicole have been abducted by the fake Shadow!"

But there wasn't any response "Some one, come in!"

Still nothing "Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Silver, Vector, Charmy, Espio! Anyone! Please!"

There, was. Still. Nothing "Newt, Matty! Rookie! Do you come in!?"

"I repeat! Newt, Matty, Rookie! Do you come in!? Rookie?! ROOKIE!?"

* * *

8:39 A.M. Eastern Part of Metropolis.

* * *

Rookie suddenly appeared in midair, inside of an empty building. He then fell onto the ground and Newt's Cube Wispon landed on the ground next to him as well, he groaned as he stood up off of the ground when suddenly the voice of Infinite said to him "You and the other two must've been stragglers who got left behind."

Rookie quickly grabbed onto the Cube Wispon and stared up at the hovering Infinite "The strong will always vanquish the weak. You, that dog, and that bear, have only your own frailty to blame."

Rookie's one handed grip on the Wispon's handle grew tighter before yelling out "Don't talk about Newt or Matty like that!"

Infinite shook his head in disappointment before holding his hand out and a tendril of red cubes came flying out of his hand and at Rookie. The red Wolf quickly jumped over the flying tendril before Infinite created a second tendril and sending it flying towards Rookie, sadly he wasn't able to dodge that send tendril so it was able to hit him. Rookie fell onto the ground and he gripped his chest as a sharp pain entered his chest, but that pain quickly went away and Rookie looked around his surroundings to see that he had entered a strange red world, when suddenly ballistic turrets began to appear on the ceiling and floor.

The turrets began to fire randomly which wouldn't have been a big problem if there were only one or two of them, but instead there were eight off them so the turrets bullets were everywhere. Rookie jumped over one of the bullets and once he landed on the ground he quickly jumped out of the way of a different bullet when suddenly that strange red world melted away and it returned to normal. Infinite then charged down at Rookie and the red Wolf was able to jump out of Infinite's way so he just slammed into the metal ground, Rookie then quickly spun around and smashed the Wispon hammer against Infinite's mask, the Jackal let out a slight yelp of pain before blasting Rookie back with an invisible shock wave.

As Rookie picked himself up off of the ground Infinite lifted back up into the air. When suddenly red cubes began to sprout out of the ground underneath him, and he quickly jumped off of that spot of ground before a massive block made up of red cubes burst out of the ground where Rookie once was. The same thing happened on the spot where Rookie was now standing, and he was able to jump out of the second massive red block cube again before another one of them burst out of the ground underneath him before he could react. So Rookie was forced back into that world, but those ballistic turrets weren't there this time, instead five massive cannons appeared on Rookie's left, the cannons aimed at Rookie and fired off massive rockets that he was able to narrowly dodge before yet another rocket was fired at him, but he was still able to dodge those second rockets before that strange world dissolved yet again.

Infinite stared down at Rookie before creating three different red cube tendrils, he then sent them flying towards Rookie. The red Wolf jumped through the tiny gap in between two of the tendrils before landing on the ground and sliding underneath the third one, Rookie then quickly jumped off of the ground and smashed his hammer against Infinite's stomach. Infinite clenched his fists in anger as he glared down at Rookie as he landed, Infinite then let out a purple tinted shock wave that created a purple aura to be layered over his already existing red aura. Suddenly multiple doors on the wall to Rookie's left and Egg Pawns began to stomp out of them and at the same time Infinite chuckled "Well, well. It seems behind that fear is a spark of defiance."

The Egg Pawns all turned to face Rookie as Infinite began to create three red cube tendrils as he said "And those eyes... I feel like we've met before."

Rookie jumped over one of the Egg Pawns and underneath one of the cube tendrils. Once he landed one of the tendrils flew towards him and he quickly bend backwards and let a tendril fly over his face, suddenly the tendrils disappeared and Infinite charged towards Rookie, the red Wolf jumped out of Infinite's way before quickly smashing the hammer against the front of Infinite's head, he staggered backwards before Rookie jumped up and Wire Attacked into Infinite, but once Rookie hit Infinite the masked Jackal grabbed onto him and Rookie was forced back into that strange world. Then those cannons reappeared and began to fire at Rookie, but thanks to his knowledge of what was going on Rookie was able to dodge the rockets much easier before Rookie was returned to the real world.

Once he returned the Egg Pawns began to fire at him while Infinite recreated three tendrils again. Rookie jumped over one of the tendrils before smashing his hammer into the ground and encasing the robots in blue cubes, Rookie then jumped out of the way of one of the tendrils before crashing the hammer into one of the cubed robots which then cause all of the other robots to all explode. Infinite then made those blocks burst out of the ground all around him, Rookie jumped out of the way of blocks before Infinite charged towards him, Rookie quickly rolled out of Infinite's way and once he stood up Rookie smashed his hammer against the back of Infinite's head, the masked Jackal let out a groan of pain before he tired to lift up into the air but Rookie quickly Wire Attacked Infinite as he lifted up off of the ground.

Infinite spun around in the air and any remaining Egg Pawns disintegrated. Infinite groaned out "You've put up quite a fight. I underestimated just how desperately the the feeble cling to life."

Rookie stared at Infinite as the masked Jackal lifted higher up into the air. He then made two red spheres of energy appear in either of his hands, he then threw one of them at Rookie and he jumped out of the way of the sphere. As he flew through the air his right glove began to slid off and as Infinite threw the second sphere of energy at Rookie which he dodged but as he did his glove came off completely which revealed the shard embedded in his right hand, as Rookie soared through the air Infinite threw a third sphere of energy at Rookie which he dodged by using his grappling hook to pull himself onto the ground. Infinite stared at Rookie's exhausted, determined, and slightly scared eyes "I remember you. You ran from me before, you survived then, but now you throw it all away now because I killed two nobodies. Curious."

Rookie stood up off of the ground and glared at Infinite in anger "Newt and Matty weren't nobodies! Don't! Talk! About! Then! Like! THAT!"

Infinite chuckled before the Phantom Ruby let out a blast and the two of them were transported to that strange world "This will be goodbye."

A ring of ballistic turrets then appeared over Infinite and they quickly fired at Rookie. The red Wolf raised his hands up to defend his eyes but once he did the shard in his right hand glowed and a low hum came out of it, which caused the strange world to shudder and the bullets fazed through him. Infinite was surprised to see what had just happened "What?! How is this possible? It can't be... How did you?"

Infinite then made the turrets to fire at Rookie again but the red Wolf was able to dodge the bullets when suddenly Infinite zipped forwards and blasted Rookie back with an invisible shock wave. Rookie slammed onto the ground and that strange world dissolved yet again, and the two of them reentered the real world, Infinite then said "No matter. The Resistance have only two days left. Let them contemplate the inevitable until I end this once and for all, but as for you, you only have a minute left."

Infinite then held his hand out as Rookie strained himself to stand up. Infinite was about to fire a bolt of energy at Rookie when suddenly they both heard the sound of a grappling hook attaching to one of the windows that had been broken by Infinite. Suddenly Newt swung into the building and in her right hand she held Matty's Electric Wispon, and in her left she was holding Rookie's Burst Wispon.

Newt quickly spun around in the air and cracked the electric whip across Infinite's mask, which left a large scorch mark across the front of his metal mask. Once Newt landed on the ground Infinite touched the scorch mark and growled out "So, the Bear lives.. I thought that you would've wanted to fall to your death, you did seem to be very connected to that Dog, what was her name again?.. Oh yes, Matty, wasn't it?"

Newt's grips on the Wispons tightened before yelling out "DON'T SAY HER NAME!"

She then raised up the Burst Wispon and flames burst out of it and at Infinite. The masked Jackal stuck his hand out and blocked the fire with an invisible force, and at the same time Rookie picked up his glove and slid it back over his hand. Infinite blasted Newt back with that same invisible force and as she quickly rolled across the ground and stood up Newt said "Rookie! Run!"

The red Wolf looked over to his friend "What? N-"

"Do it!"

Rookie looked over to Infinite then back over to Newt before stepping back, spinning around, jumping up into the air, and using his grappling hook to fling himself out of the building. Infinite glared down at Newt before creating a tendril of red cubes, but Newt quickly ran forwards and blasted Infinite with the Burst Wispon. Infinite let out a yell of pain as his legs were covered in flames, once Newt finished firing the Burst Wispon Infinite used the Phantom Ruby to put out any flames that were still on his legs. Newt then quickly whipped Infinite's back with the Electric Wispon before using Infinite's split second distraction to grapple herself out of the building. Infinite watched as Newt flung out of the building. He then clenched his fists as he continued to watch Newt escape him, anger began to fill him, the Phantom Ruby went off once, then twice, then yet again.

He then let out a scream of anger before the Phantom Ruby let out a final blast that destroyed the floor of the building that Infinite was in "...The next time we meet.. You won't get to escape, neither of you, will get to escape."

He then flew out of the building and head towards the Eggman base in Metropolis. Meanwhile Rookie landed on a highway and Newt then landed next to him, Rookie turned to face his friend "Newt! How- What- A- Are you alright?!"

Newt nodded "Yeah, I'm.. I'm fine, let's.. Let's go find the rest of the Resistance."

Rookie also nodded before the two of them turned around and began to run down the highway and towards the location the Special Forces were supposed to be. While they ran Rookie spoke into his earpiece "Does anyone read me?"

There wasn't any response other than static "Special Forces? Are you there?"

Still just more static. Rookie looked over to Newt "We've been disconnected from the Secured Network."

Newt sighed "I thought so, listen. We just need to meet up with the Special Forces and we'll be able to get out of here safe."

Rookie nodded as the two continued to run forwards, still heading towards the location the Special Forces were supposed to be.


	16. Metropolis Aftermath

**HEY, GUESS WHAT. IT'S MY BIRTHDAY MONTH. WHY'D I MENTION THIS? BECAUSE I FELT LIKE IT WAS SOMETHING THAT'D BE COOL TO SHARE.**

 **AND THIS STORY HAS ALSO REACHED TWO THOUSAND VIEWS! THANK YOU FOR GETTING THE STORY TO THIS MILESTONE, AND PLEASE KEEP THIS GOING! ANYWAYS, ENJOY THIS CHAPTER.**

* * *

8:43 A.M. United Federations Main Land, Remains of Westopolis, G.U.N. Remnants' Underground Base.

* * *

Sonic paced around the base impatiently while Shadow watched Sonic pace while he fiddled around with an unloaded gun. Sonic stopped and began to rapidly tap his foot against the ground "Come on! You sure Green City isn't safe now?!"

Shadow sighed "No. It's not. If it were, Abraham would come in here and tell us that it is safe."

Sonic rolled his eyes before sitting down in a metal folding chair and crossing his arms over his chest in annoyance. Sonic couldn't do anything, Shadow wouldn't let him send a message to the Resistance because him and the G.U.N. remnants were worried that Eggman would track Sonic's message back to the base. Due to the base's small size Sonic couldn't take a light jog to try and burn off some of his impatience and annoyance, and of course, Sonic couldn't even go back to Green Hill City because it wasn't safe for him, whatever that meant.

Sonic sighed as gave up being annoyed and impatient. Instead he became bored and slightly guilty that he was such an impatient jerk to Shadow, but knowing Shadow he probably didn't even care. Sonic then decided that a good way to destroy his boredom would be to watch Shadow fiddle around with that pistol "..Why do you even want a gun like that? Aren't Eggman's robots made of strong metal?"

Shadow cocked the pistol's slide back "Yes, they are. But we have time to kill, and unlike you I don't run from my problems."

"I don't run from my problems!"

Shadow rolled his eyes before holding the pistol out and looking down its sight to make sure that they were in proper working order. Sonic watched as Shadow placed the pistol down on the desk he was sitting next to, Shadow then scooted his chair so that his back was facing Sonic, and his chest was facing the pistol as well as the desk. Sonic stared at Shadow's back and saw some subtle grey streaks in the fur that was on the middle of his back, from what Sonic understood Shadow didn't age, or he didn't age like everyone else did. Instead Shadow's muscles just got stronger and stronger instead of them slowly withering away, and one thing that Sonic noticed was that over the years minor grey streaks would appear randomly on his body before disappearing a day or two after they appeared.

Somehow, thinking about how Shadow aged lead Sonic to try and figure out what he had been doing the year he was missing. Maybe Shadow heard about Eggman's attack on the South Island Republic and immediately ran to G.U.N. so he could do... something, honestly Sonic had no clue what he was trying to think of. He just through a bunch of ideas at his mental wall and put together what ever had stuck to it. Eventually Sonic said "So you gonna tell me where you were during the year I was captured?"

Shadow remained silent before setting down the pistol and facing Sonic "When I learned about Eggman's attack on the city, and how he was winning, I immediately knew that Infinite would be apart of the attack. So I charged into the city and confronted him, but he did something. Something that knocked me unconscious, and when I woke up, I was buried under a thick bank of snow in the middle of the Holoskin main land. After I pulled myself out of the snow I... Well you can figure out the rest."

Sonic stared at Shadow confused "Wait.. You knew about Infinite before even I did?"

Shadow sighed "Yes... I did. I ran into him a month before the Doctor took over.. Sadly I didn't know what he could do then, but I do now."

Sonic stood up "And you didn't tell anybody?"

"Like I've already said, I didn't know what Infinite could do then. I wouldn't even be able to describe what had happened when I met him if I wanted to."

Sonic rolled his eyes before sitting back down on the chair "...Alright, wake me up when we can head back into the city."

Shadow nodded before Sonic closed his eyes and began to fall asleep in the metal chair, at the same time Shadow picked the pistol back up and stared at it before setting it back down on the table, standing up, and walking out of the room so Shadow could be near Abraham when the news that they could go back into the city came in.

* * *

8:44 A.M. West Side Island, Northern Parts of Metropolis Zone.

* * *

Rookie and Newt both ran towards a building that almost looked like a shopping mall that had a bomb blow up inside of it. When suddenly the two of them skid to a halt when they saw Sally dragging Antoine out of the building. Rookie and Newt ran over to Sally who then said "Rookie! Newt! Thank-goodness! I- I need help."

Rookie nodded before attempting to reach down and grab Antoine's right arm. Sally quickly stopped him from doing that and said "No, Metal Sonic broke that arm."

Rookie looked at Sally then at Antoine as he noticed their injures. He then looked over to the building and saw all of the fires that were in it before realizing "Where's Bunnie and Nicole?"

While Rookie asked his question he grabbed onto Antoine's legs and began to help Sally carry the unconscious Coyote farther away from the building. Sally sighed as she said "Shadow. The fake Shadow. Abducted them, I don't know where they are, or if they're alright."

Sally then sat Antoine down and next to a strange metal tree that sat next to the highway. Rookie let go of Antoine's legs and backed away from the two of them "This is all my fault.."

Newt was able to overhear Rookie so she walked over to him and said "No, this isn't your fault."

Rookie stared at her, a defeated look in his eyes "It is.. If I had told you and M- Matty.. About how Infinite knew me then we might've been more careful around him or something.. I- I could've stopped all of this! I could've stopped Matty from being killed, I could've saved Antoine, Nicole, and Bunnie if I had just come clean early and told everyone that Infinite knew me, we could've avoided all of this!"

Newt suddenly crouched down in front of Rookie before putting her hands on his shoulders and saying to him "Dustin, you're saying things that don't make sense.. None of this is your fault, sadly.. This wasn't avoidable, we underestimated the power of the Phantom Ruby and we payed for it, in more ways than one."

Sally suddenly spoke up "Matty's dead?"

Newt sighed as she stood up again "Yes.. Infinite killed her."

Rookie felt a surge of anger coarse through his body as he remembered the sight of that energy beam piercing right through Matty's chest. He clenched his fists and the shard glowed and hummed slightly as anger continued to surge through his body. Just then he heard the sound of a Phantom Ruby pulse, but he quickly realized that it had come from his shard, so he quickly hid the front of his hand in his chest fur as the other two looked around concerned, and not realizing that the sound had come from the shard in Rookie's hand.

Sally then said "We need to get out of here. We need to get back to the Resistance Base."

Newt nodded and so did Rookie. The red Wolf then helped Sally pick up Antoine again before Newt then draped Antoine over her back. The three of them then began to run forwards and towards the boarder of the city. As they ran Newt handed Rookie his Burst Wispon and Rookie handed Newt her Cube Wispon, all the while Sally tried to fix her right laser bracelet again but she didn't have the tools necessary to fix it at the moment so she just huffed at it out of frustration. The three of them would then continue to run forwards when suddenly they skid to a halt in front of the transport truck that the Special Forces had taken into the city.

Sally quickly ran over to the truck and opened up its back doors so that Newt, Rookie, and the still unconscious Antoine could climb into the back. Sally then climbed into the front of the truck where she would then try and turn the vehicle's engine on, but the engine only sputtered slightly. Sally tried to turn the engine back on and it sputtered one last time before finally roaring to life.

Sally quickly grabbed ahold of the truck's steering wheel before she began to drive the truck out of the city. Meanwhile in the back of the truck Newt began to take off her helmet and mouth piece that had stopped working some time after she was thrown off of the bridge by Infinite. Once Newt took off her helmet it let Rookie see that her right ear had a notch in it that kinda looked as though Newt's ear had been bitten by something in the past, but as Newt set her helmet and mouth piece down the calm and collected facade that Rookie hadn't even known Newt was keeping up, melted away, and was replaced with tears that began to roll down the sides of her face.

Newt raised one of her hands up and rubbed one of her eyes as she continued to cry. Rookie was about to ask what was wrong, but he suddenly got a good look at the inside of Newt's helmet and saw that there was a handwritten message on it that read "If lost, return to Newt Turgeon. Or Matty Watkins if she's available."

It looked as though that message had been written by Matty herself, and that one little message was the only explanation Rookie needed to understand why Newt had started to cry. He honestly didn't blame her either, he wanted to cry himself but he just couldn't, he had to be strong, for Newt, and for Matty. Suddenly Sally slid open a small hatch that sat on the wall of the front of the truck, in between the driver's and passenger's seat. She glanced through it and said "We're about to leave the city and I can already see that Eggman's got troops waiting for us up ahead. So hold on, and buckle up."

She then closed the hatch before Newt and Rookie quickly buckled themselves up. The truck then lurched forwards as it sped up, a moment after it sped up the truck began to crash through various robots which caused the truck to toss and turn while the sound of crunching metal was heard all throughout the vehicle.

* * *

8:56 A.M. United Federations Main Land, Remains of Westopolis, G.U.N. Remnants' Underground Base.

* * *

Shadow walked through the base aimlessly staring at the floor as he did. He was still waiting for the all clear to take Sonic back to Green Hill City so he had nothing to do until that news came in. As he walked G.U.N. soldiers would occasionally pass by him and either, not acknowledge Shadow, or look at him with a fearful face. Even though Shadow showed time and time again that he wasn't an enemy to the humans, they still feared him, of course that didn't even matter to him. There were only two humans who's opinions he cared about, one of them was Abraham, and the other was Maria. Sadly one of them wasn't with Shadow anymore, and the other once hated him for something he didn't do.

As Shadow continued to walk through the base a soldier suddenly stopped him and said "Commander Tower would like a word with you."

Shadow nodded before walking away from the soldier and towards Abraham's office, which in reality was actually a supply closet that they'd outfitted for the purposes Abraham needed to command the remnants of G.U.N. Once Shadow entered Abraham's office he looked over to Shadow and said "You look rather tired Shadow."

"Hmph, so do you."

Abraham chuckled slightly as he stood up "War can do that to someone."

Shadow nodded before sitting down on a chair that sat in front of Abraham's desk "You wanted to talk to me?"

Abraham nodded "I do indeed. According to the remaining spy satellites we have active Eggman's forces in Green Hill City have diminished to a point where you and Sonic can safely return to the city and link up with the Resistance."

Shadow grinned slightly and he was about to say something when Abraham suddenly said "But.. That's not all. Once you link up with the Resistance, I want you. No. I'm ordering you to stay there and help them win this war."

Shadow stared at Abraham with a slightly surprised look on his face "What? But Commander Tower I work for G.U.N. I have to be here-"

Abraham raised his hand up and cut Shadow off "No, you have to be there with them. They're your friends, and they're the only ones who have a chance at beating Eggman. G.U.N. doesn't stand a chance right now, so before you get your self killed trying to save us. I'm ordering you to join Knuckles' South Island Resistance."

Shadow sighed before standing up and saluting Abraham "Yes sir, Commander Tower sir."

Abraham then nodded before Shadow left his office and began to head towards the room Sonic was still in. Once Shadow entered said room he saw Sonic hunched forwards asleep in the chair, drool rolling down the side of his mouth, and snoring. Shadow chuckled slightly before walking over to Sonic and waking him up by shoving Sonic out of the chair. As Sonic shook his head to wake himself up quicker he said "Hey! What was that for?"

Shadow crossed his arms over his chest and said "It's safe to go back now."

Sonic quickly jumped up to his feet "Awesome let's go!"

Shadow then quickly grabbed onto Sonic before he could rush out of the room "Before we do, I need to tell you that Commander Tower has ordered me to join the Resistance and stay with them until Eggman is defeated."

Sonic nodded "Then it looks like we're working together again Shads!"

Shadow also nodded before the two of them then quickly made their way out of the room, and out of the building. Once they reentered the ruins of Westopolis Sonic looked around and said "How are we getting there?"

Shadow then quickly grabbed onto Sonic's arm again before teleporting the two of them away from the destroyed city.

* * *

8:57 A.M. South Island, Green Hill City.

* * *

In a bright flash of blue Sonic and Shadow both appeared in the streets of the ruined city. Shadow let go of Sonic's arm and the blue Hedgehog said "Why do I keep on forgetting you can do that?"

But Shadow didn't answer, instead he began to make his way down the road and towards the Resistance base. How he knew where the base was, Sonic didn't know, but what he did know was that he wasn't just going to let Shadow beat him there. So he quickly Boosted forwards and passed by Shadow before turning a corner and heading straight towards the building that acted as a cover for the underground base.

Sonic quickly went the process of finding the base's key and opening up the secret door before rushing inside and into the freight elevator. Suddenly Shadow teleported next to Sonic which caught the blue Hedgehog by surprise. The lift then began to lower down towards the main level of the base and once it reached said level the two of them stepped off of the lift and saw Espio rush out of the Briefing Room and towards the lift.

But he suddenly came to a stop once he saw Shadow. Espio quickly pulled out a throwing knife and threw it at Shadow's head, but the black and red Hedgehog quickly grabbed onto the knife's blade before it hit him and Sonic yelled out "Whoa! Watch it Espio! This isn't one of those Phantom Clones! This is the real Shadow."

Espio glared at Shadow as he haphazardly tossed the throwing knife to the ground "How can I trust him, or even you?"

Sonic face palmed himself before saying "Because Phantom Clones have no heart or soul. Which means they can't come up with clever plans, which also means that they wouldn't try and fool you into thinking they're the real deal."

Espio stared at Shadow and Sonic, inspecting them for anything out of place, before finally easing up and saying "It's good to see you two back. But a lot has happened since you've been gone. And I don't have time to explain it all."

Espio then ran past Shadow and Sonic and into the lift. But before the lift began to move Sonic said "Wait! Then who can explain what's happened?"

Espio pointed to the Briefing Room and said "Knuckles can."

The lift then shuddered before descending deeper into the base. Sonic and Shadow both entered the Briefing Room and once they did they saw that there were stretchers and cots placed all over the place. And sitting on each and everyone of those cots or stretchers were injured Resistance soldiers, and lying on a stretcher in the very back of the room was Antoine. Sonic and Shadow both stared at the injured soldiers all around them in surprise before Knuckles ran over to them and said "Sonic! Where were you! And is this-"

"Yes this is the real Shadow. And where I've been is Westopolis, I was kinda forced to stay there awhile because it was apparently to dangerous for me to head back to the base after Shads took out the Android that was impersonating him in Eggman's army."

Knuckles sighed "That's.. About the only good news I've heard in the past few minutes. Come on, we've got a lot to talk about."

Knuckles then began to led Sonic and Shadow towards the Echidna's own personal bunks so that Knuckles could explain to them the failure of Operation Big Wave. And so Sonic and Shadow could tell Knuckles about the Phantom Clones and how they could be created for-almost-ever. Meanwhile Rookie, Newt, and Sally all sat alone in the bunks that Newt, and Rookie once shared with Matty. Sally was sitting next to Newt and she was letting Newt cry into her shoulder, while Rookie sat on his own bed and stared at the ground silently thinking to himself " _If I had used the shard on that highway, I could've saved Matty.. But I didn't, I didn't do it because I was to scared... That's why I never told them about how I met Infinite, that's why I haven't told them about the shard. Because I'm to scared, but from now on, I'm no longer going to be scared. I'm going to make them pay, I am going to defeat Eggman's insanity._ "


	17. Infiltrate the Chemical Plant

8:59 A.M. Resistance Base, Briefing Room.

* * *

Shadow stood off in the corner of the room, just staring at all of the wounded soldiers that were in there. Now that he had a chance to actually look at the base, he realized that this Resistance and the G.U.N. remnant he was staying with before weren't all that different. They were both remains of something destroyed be Eggman, and they both lived inside of the remains of something that Eggman also destroyed. And even though he had yet to get to know the Resistance's soldiers, he felt bad for them, what they went through in Metropolis Zone sounded terrifying and traumatizing. Sadly Shadow knew those two emotions mixed together all to well.

As Shadow continued to stare at the wounded Sonic, who had just gotten done telling the Resistance about the Phantom Clones, walked over to him "Knux says we're gonna have a debriefing here soon."

Shadow nodded "That's good."

Sonic also nodded before attempting to say something else, when he was suddenly cut off by someone saying outside of the room "Where is he? Where's Shadow?"

The Briefing Room's door then slid open and Rouge rushed in. She scanned the room before finally locking eyes with Shadow who took his back off of the wall once she burst in "Rouge?"

"Shadow?"

The two ran over to each other and stopped inches away from each other. Shadow then said "It's good to that you're alright."

Rouge then suddenly slapped the side of Shadow's head "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?"

Shadow barely reacted when Rouge slapped him, and he also barely reacted when Rouge suddenly pulled herself into a hug with him "Where were you?"

Shadow let out a sigh as Rouge let go. Shadow shook his head "Where I was doesn't matter. What does, is that I'm here now."

Rouge scoffed at Shadow "Where you were does matter! Me and Omega needed you in Green Hill City the day of Eggman's conquest! Where were you!?"

"I was in the city, at the same time as you. The only difference being that I didn't tell G.U.N. and that I attempted to take Infinite on myself."

Rouge glared at Shadow "What?! Are you crazy?!"

Sonic chuckled "Well, he did contemplate joining Black Doom."

Rouge and Shadow both glared at Sonic, who then sighed and kept his mouth closed. Rouge then looked back over to Shadow, still wanting an answer. Shadow sighed "I- I can't explain why I did that, yet. But just know that I will soon."

Rouge shook her head "No, no secrets. Not after the Eclipse Event, not after the Black Arms' Invasion, not after the Metal Crisis. You're telling me why you tried to confront Infinite then."

Shadow crossed his arms over his chest "Fine.. It was because I thought I could handle him on my own."

Rouge stared at Shadow silently "...Really? That. That's it?"

Shadow nodded before Rouge let out a sigh "I- I don't care. I'm just happy you're back.. Now all we gotta do is find Omega and get him repaired so we can bring Team Dark back."

Shadow grinned slightly when suddenly Silver, Vector, Charmy, Espio, Newt, Rookie, and Sally all walked into the Briefing Room. As they entered Knuckles and Amy also both entered the room, while Knuckles walked over to the grey table he began to say "Things were going well with Operation Big Wave, but then everything fizzled out when the Phantom Ruby kicked in."

Silver then suddenly said "That fake Shadow the Special Forces fought in Metropolis was created using the Phantom Ruby's powers, right?"

He looked over to Sonic who nodded, then over to the real Shadow who also nodded and Silver continued "Even if it's a Virtual Reality Projection, it's as strong as the real Shadow."

Knuckles nodded before looking over to Rouge "Have you found the intel I wanted you to find?"

Rouge sighed as she shook her head "No, not yet. But I have reports that Eggman's database is located at the Chemical Plant. If we can check that out, we might find something there."

At the same time Tails and Blue, who had a bandage on his arm, both walked into the Briefing Room. Suddenly Sonic said "That sounds like a promising lead. We have to figure out the secret behind Infinite's power and Virtual Reality."

Sonic then looked over to his two tailed friend "Tails, can you handle this?"

Tails wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but judging by the fact Sonic was talking about Infinite's power, and that Amy had pulled up a holographic image of the Northern Isle and the Chemical Plant they were planning on infiltrating the base and try to locate something of importance "Got it. I'll take Blue with me and head to the Chemical Plant!"

Knuckles nodded "That's good to hear. But just to let you know, thanks to the Egg Fleet we've lost our communications ship, which has forced us to use the base's own communications system. So any transmissions to you and Blue might be a little.. Gargled."

Tails nodded before him and Blue turned around. As they began to walk out of the room Blue leaned over to Tails and said "I don't recognize most of the people in this room. And I have no clue what were doing."

Tails nodded as he whispered back "All I've figured out is that we're sneaking into Eggman's newest Chemical Plant, for what reason? I'm not sure."

Suddenly Sally walked up behind them as they finally exited the room "Don't worry, I can tell you two what you're looking for."

Blue looked up to her and said "Thanks, Squirrel lady, means a lot to me."

Sally blankly stared down at Blue "I- I'm not a Squirrel."

Blue shrugged "Sorry, never seen some one like you before. They don't exist in my reality."

Sally looked over to Tails "What?"

Tails shrugged "I don't know what's in his world, and what isn't.. But, about what were doing."

Sally sighed before she began to lead the two towards the lift, once they got on Sally began to explain their mission to them while the lift carried them up to the top floor of the base.

* * *

9:10 A.M. The Northern Isle, Inside the Chemical Plant.

* * *

Blue dropped out of a vent in the ceiling and landed on the yellow metal ground below him. Blue then ran forwards and at the same time the voice of Tails came over his communicator "From what Sally told us, Rouge says there should be a database somewhere around here. We have to locate the building it's in. There's a lot of ground to cover so just finding it will be a chore."

Blue then jumped up into the air and once he hit the ground again he sped off into his Drop Dash. After a minute of rolling Blue jumped out of his drop dash and saw that the Chemical Plant wasn't like the one he had been to, what felt like a day ago. Instead it was more like a giant metal city inside of a giant building that just happened to have pipes of chemicals flowing through it. He continued forwards when suddenly he ran across a chrome Egg Pawn, the shinny robot aimed its two energy cannon arms at Blue before they both began to fire at him.

Blue quickly jumped over the speeding energy shots before crashing threw the robot's head. Once he landed on the ground Blue continued to run forwards before entering a large cargo lift. The lift's doors slid closed and it began to make its way up towards the end of its elevator shaft when suddenly Egg Pawns began to jump down the shaft and onto the lift. Blue charged up into his Spin Dash before blasting off threw a robot in front of him, once he crashed threw that robot the one behind him began to fie at him.

Blue ran towards that Egg Pawn and quickly jumped threw its chest before the lift came to a stop and its doors slid open. Blue began to run forwards again before coming to a dead end wall, luckily there was a hatch that would lead into a pipe. Blue jumped up into the air and crashed through the hatch and into the pipe, he rolled through the pipe and shot out of it and up into the air on the side of that dead end wall. Once Blue landed back on the ground he resumed running forwards when suddenly the metal path he was running on shuddered before opening up underneath him, dropping him into purple liquid chemicals.

Blue trudged through the purple liquid as he thought " _Great. First Hydrocity Zone, now this?_ "

He jumped up and was able to poke his head over the liquid that allowed him to take in a breath before submerging back into the liquid again. He continued to trudge forwards until he reached an underwater vent that blew enough wind that would be able to push him up to the surface. Blue quickly jumped into the wind current and he was quickly blown out of the purple chemicals and back onto the metal pathway. As he returned to running as Tails' voice came back over the communicator "Too much quiet is a sign of danger. Best to play it safe."

Blue nodded "You got it."

Before jumping into his Drop Dash and crashing through three Egg Pawns in front of him. Once he came out of his Spin Ball he said "That.. Was playing it safe right?"

Blue then ran down a pathway that led him downwards when suddenly that purple chemical liquid began to rise up and engulf Blue in it. Blue trudged forwards as Tails' came back over the communicator "Whoa! The water level is rising fast! Something must've triggered it. Stay sharp!"

Blue began to slowly walk up a set of stairs and eventually he was able to leave that purple water. He then shook off any chemicals that clung to his quills before running forwards again. He then started to run into a building that had a giant chemical mixing device when suddenly Tails' voice came over his communicator "Wait, Blue. I think you've found the building that the database is in! Hang on I'm on my way!"

Suddenly Tails fell out of a vent in the ceiling and on the ground in front of Blue. The Hedgehog helped Tails up onto his feet and Tails said "Phew, so this is where the database is."

Blue nodded before the two of them began to walk towards a large computer. Tails then began to type away at the computer's keyboard and said "Hold on a sec while I access the data from this computer..."

Blue watched as Tails pulled up a screen and began to read what it all meant "Okay... Failed battle plans.. Old robot designs.. Wow, he's got like ten terabytes of selfies.. So where does he keep the.."

Tails then pulled up a different screen "Found it! Virtual Reality weapon, the Phantom Ruby."

Blue became interested in what Tails was talking about now "Huh?"

Tails nodded "Yeah."

He then continued to read the Phantom Ruby's description "A weapon that takes control of people's visual and depth perception to feed false information to the brain, creating a new reality for them! Like a dream so real, if you bump yourself in it, your sleeping self will bruise? It's hard to believe."

Blue nodded "Especially for me. My Phantom Ruby didn't create a fake world."

Tails then opened up a new screen and said "Eggman experimented with lots of prototypes, like one that was designed to explode if it came into contact with something it wasn't designed to interact with. Once he created the final version he incorporated it into Infinite. If I'm reading this data correctly, then there might be a weakness."

Blue looked over to Tails "And what is it?"

But Tails wasn't really paying any attention to Blue "This is huge! Let's get this information back to the others!"

Tails then took out a small USB device and began to download the Phantom Ruby's data onto the device before him and Blue began to run out of the Chemical Plant and back towards the original Tornado that was parked outside, out of the sight of Eggman's security cameras.

* * *

9:12 A.M. Green Hill City, Resistance Base, Briefing Room.

* * *

Sonic sat silently in a chair as he impatiently bounced his leg up and down in place again. Knuckles, who was standing next to that grey table, said "I don't like sitting on the bench, but there's nothing to do till Tails gets back."

Amy's computer began to beep rapidly and she quickly looked at the screen before saying "Way to jinx it! Metal Sonic has been spotted in the city!"

Shadow walked over to Amy "Is it another fake?"

Sonic stood up and off of the chair "Why would they bother making a fake out of something that already isn't real? Couldn't they just build more? Even if it isn't, it's getting wrecked!"

Sonic then zipped over to Rookie and said "Let's go partner!"

Rookie was surprised by Sonic but he was able to stand up and say "A- Alright."

Sonic and Rookie then both ran out of the Briefing Room, and out into the city. The two started to run towards the Red Gate Bridge when Amy's gargled voice came over the Network "W- W- Watch out, Metal S- S- Sonic was sp- sp- spotted near the- the- there."

Sonic looked around their surroundings as they began to run across a small bridge "Strange. I don't see him anywhere."

Suddenly an Egg Titan punched its fist through the bridge and Rookie along side Sonic both began to fall towards the top of a mining shaft. Sonic and Rookie were both able to land on top of an outcrop, Sonic helped Rookie up and said "Phew! That was a close one."

The Egg Titan then turned and faced the two of them. It raised its right arm up and prepared to launch it at the two of them when Rookie let out a scared yell before grabbing onto Sonic's arm. Rookie then forced Sonic to jump off of the outcrop before Rookie then used his grappling hook to swing around the Titan, all the while Sonic said "Good work Rookie! Keep it up!"

Rookie was able to use his grappling hook to narrowly dodge the Egg Titan's laser beam. The two of them swung over the Titan's left arm then under the bottom of the robot, Rookie the used his grappling hook to fling him and Sonic up to the top of the Titan's head. Sonic then curled up into his Spin Ball and said "It's lights out for you!"

He then charged right through the Titan's eye destroying its central processing system and forcing the robot into a complete shut down. At the same time Rookie grappled past the dying robot and into the mining shaft where he then landed next to Sonic. The Hedgehog looked over to Rookie and said "We can't let those things keep rampaging around the city."

Rookie nodded before him and Sonic began to run forwards "Yeah, but let's not stop them like that."

Sonic chuckled "I can't promise anything."

The two of them then ran out of the mining tunnel and into the underground street tunnel. The two of them then ran onto the Red Gate Bridge when suddenly Metal Sonic flew out of the sky, and slammed into the ground in front of Sonic and Rookie. They both skid to a halt and Sonic said "So it looks like Metal isn't a Phantom Clone."

Rookie nodded and Metal Sonic stood upright before the sound of the Phantom Ruby's pulse wave went off. Metal began to lift itself off of the ground as a purple aura began to grow around him, lighting like energy began to arch off of the aura as Metal suddenly said "Target identified.. Priority One, Hedgehog."

Metal then looked at Rookie "Identifying target... Target identified.. Priority Seven, Wolf."

It clenched its fists and said "Engaging main objective. Destroy the Resistance."

It then charged towards Sonic and Rookie but the two of them quickly jumped out of Metal's way. The robot then turned back around and began to charge forwards and past the other two, and Sonic said "Looks like Metal's gotten an upgrade from the Phantom Ruby."

Sonic then grabbed onto Rookie's arm and began to Boost forwards. As they ran forwards debris sitting on the side of the bridge began to float up and there was a purple aura surrounding them. The debris were then thrown at Sonic and Rookie, they than quickly dodged the debris and Boosted forwards before jumping up and Homing Attacking Metal Sonic. Once they landed on the ground Metal shook its head and blasted off forwards before it created several purple electrical walls that attempted to block the other two, but Sonic and Rookie were able to dodge the electric walls before Boosting forwards and towards Metal Sonic.

Metal Sonic then turned around in midair and created Buzz Bombers that he made fly towards Sonic and Rookie. But the two then jumped up into the air and Homing Attacking into the Bombers which gave them the chance to Homing Attack into Metal Sonic. The robot clenched its fists and blasted forwards before spinning around and blasting off towards Sonic and Rookie, in his powerful attack "V. MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE!"

Sonic and Rookie quickly jumped out of Metal's way and Rookie almost fell of the bridge but he was able to grapple himself back up onto the bridge. Metal Sonic then spun back around in the air and began to charge back towards Sonic and Rookie in his V. Maximum Overdrive again. But Sonic quickly grabbed onto Rookie's hand "Here goes partner! When we join forces, the sky's the limit!"

They both began to run forwards getting faster and faster before they both yelled out "Double Boost!"

Metal looked over its shoulder and saw in a split second Sonic and Rookie Double Boosted into Metal and right through its chest. Sonic and Rookie landed back on the ground and slowly came to a stop, but their reactions to what had just happened were very different. Sonic had a big grin on his face, and Rookie doubled over and put his hands on his knees to try and take in deep breaths. Sonic walked over to Rookie "Hey! That was great! We were like a well oiled machine... Fighting.. A.. Well oiled machine."

Sonic then held his hand out for Rookie to fist bump it and the red Wolf did just that a big smile on his face. When suddenly the severed head of Metal Sonic said "P- P- Primary o- o- o- objective a- a- ac- accomplished."

Sonic and Rookie turned around and faced Metal's head. Sonic put his hands on his hips "Really? You haven't killed any kind of Resistance. I'm still alive, and so is Rookie here."

Sonic patted the red Wolf's back and Metal's head said "P- P- Primary o- o- objective: D- D- Dis- Distract Sonic a- a- and the r- red W- W- Wolf."

Rookie then said "Wait, what?"

Suddenly the voice of Amy came over the Network again "S- S- Sonic! Rookie! G- G- Get back t- to the b- b- b- base!"

Sonic and Rookie then turned around and began to run towards the end of the Red Gate Bridge as Sonic said "Wait, what's going on!? Amy?!"

"S- Something's attacking t- t- t- the base! W- W- W- We don't kn- kn- kn- know what it i- i- is!"

Sonic looked over to Rookie and grabbed onto his hand before Boosting forwards, at the same time Sonic said "We're coming!"

And as they ran forwards black smoke began to rise up in the distance from where the base was located "Come on Rookie! We got to speed up!"

Rookie looked over to Sonic "W- We can't! I- I don't know how!"

Sonic shook his head "No, we got this. Come on, let's Double Boost, we- we have to!"

Rookie nodded before the two of them Double Boosted forwards yet again, heading towards the black smoke that was rising up from the Resistance base.


	18. Smoke Over The Sunset

9:16 A.M. Over the Ocean, Far off the Coast of South Island.

* * *

Blue stood silently on top of the Tornado's metallic wing while Tails said into his communicator "Knuckles, Amy, we've got the data and we're on our way back to the base."

Suddenly the gargled voice of Knuckles said "N- N- N- No d- d- d- don't come back to th- th- the base!"

Blue looked over his shoulder as Tails said into the communicator "What? Why?"

"Th- Th- The base is u- u- u- under at- at- attack!"

Blue turned around and faced Tails "That's not good."

Tails nodded "Sorry, Knuckles. But you need our help."

"N- N- N- No, you and B- B- ue- n- need to stay a- a- a- away from the b- b- base! A- A- And don't w- w- w- w- worry about us, S- S- S- S- nic and R- Rookie are o- o- on their w- w- w- way."

Tails stared at Blue for a moment before reluctantly saying "A- Alright, but where should we met up again?"

"H- H- Head to- et- a- b- base."

Blue furrowed his brow in confusion "Eta base?"

Tails shook his head "No, Beta Base... Wait, Knuckles! Don't tell me!"

"S- S- Sorry T- T- T- Tails, it's a- a- a- already to l- l- l- ate- the b- b- base can't b- b- be saved."

Tails sighed before making the Tornado turn towards the left slightly "Alright Knuckles, I'm heading to Beta Base."

"S- S- S- ee- ya s- soon T- T- Tails!"

Tails then turned off the communicator as Blue said "So where's this Beta Base?

The Fox sighed "Don't worry, you'll see."

Blue nodded before the Tornado continued to fly towards South Island, away from Green Hill City, the Green Hill Zone, and towards the secret Beta Base

* * *

9:16 A.M. South Island, Green Hill City, the Under attack Resistance Base.

* * *

Sonic and Rookie both skid to a halt in front of the burning ruins of the building that acted as the once secret base's cover. The two of them then attempted to run towards the destroyed lift so they could jump down its shaft when suddenly a fist flew out of the smoke and hit Sonic in the head. He fell onto his back as Zavok stepped out from behind a large pillar of smoke, Sonic stared up at the Zeti "Z- Zavok!? I thought you went back to the Hex! Wh- What's going on?!" Rookie quickly pulled out his Wispon and fired it at Zavok. The Zeti's entire body was covered in flames and at the same time Sonic stood up off of the ground, Rookie then let go of the Wispon's trigger and he, along with Sonic, saw something terrifying standing in the place Zavok was once standing.

Instead of a crispy Zeti, the two of them saw the bare Endoskeleton of a Zavok Android standing in front of them. Its digital and fake eyes locked onto Sonic before some one overhead said "I knew it would only be a matter of time."

They both looked up and saw Infinite floating above them. The masked Jackal landed on the ground next to the Zavok Android "Hello again Sonic, Rookie."

The two of them clenched their fists as they both said through their clenched teeth "Infinite."

He nodded before saying "Sadly I don't have time to chat."

The Zavok Android then charged towards the two of them and Infinite lifted up into the air. Sonic jumped over the Android as Rookie jumped out of its way and fired his Wispon at it while Infinite began to fly towards the back of the building where a secret hatch was. The Zavok Android spun around and smacked Rookie's Wispon out of his hands before Sonic Homing Attacked into the Android's head, at the same time Sally led a group of soldiers out of the secret hatch. She looked up into the air when Infinite fired an energy shot at them, she quickly held up her left arm and her plasma blade ignited and blocked the shot, at the same time the Zavok Android picked Rookie up off of the ground by his throat.

Sonic quickly Homing Attacked into the Android's arm which caused it to be bent out of place and to also drop Rookie to the ground. Infinite continued to fire at Sally as the last Resistance soldiers still inside of the base began to run from the burning building and towards a transport that was waiting for them a safe distance away from the base. The Phantom Ruby then suddenly went off and a tendril of red cubes burst out of the ground behind Sally, it then wrapped around her neck and began to choke her while Infinite simply watched her strain to get herself free.

Sally brought up her plasma blade and began to slash at the tendril wrapped around her arm as Sonic threw Rookie's Wispon over to him. The red Wolf caught his Wispon and quickly rolled out of the way of the Zavok Android's stomping foot. Sally was able to cut herself free from the tendril and once she did she fell to the ground and Sonic Homing Attacked into the Android again. Sally coughed as she tried to stand up off of the ground, Infinite stared down at her "I feel as though we've met before."

Sally finally managed to get up onto her feet as she let out a final cough "W- We haven't met, but I know you."

Infinite held his hand out and was about to fire an energy shot at her when suddenly he hesitantly began to look to his left as if someone were trying to talk to him "Wh- But!.. Rrrrgh.. Fine."

He then lowered his hand "You're lucky that Eggman wants you alive for awhile longer."

Infinite then flew away from the demolished base and as he passed over Rookie, Sonic, and the Zavok Android. Once he did the Android dissolved into red cubes before they all dissolved into nothing themselves. Sonic and Rookie both began to run towards the back of the burning buildings, and as they did Sonic said "Not only was that Zavok an Android. But he was also a Phantom Clone Android."

Rookie nodded before they both vaulted over a small section of the destroyed wall and over to Sally. They both came to a stop in front of her and Sonic said to her "Sally, are you alright?"

She nodded as she rubbed her neck, which had a large red mark on it "Yeah. I'm fine. But we have to get out of here and get to the Beta Base."

Sonic and Rookie both looked at each other before Rookie said "What's Beta Base?"

Sally then began to lead the other two towards the distant transport as she said "Beta Base is the second tier secret base, this bases was a third tier."

Sonic furrowed his brow in confusion "Huh?"

Sally sighed before explaining "We have three secret bases in the world. Each of them are classified into tiers of how secretive they are, this base was a third tier base and it was called 'Gamma Base' we're going to Beta Base, a second tier base."

Rookie suddenly spoke up "If we want to stay hidden why don't we go to the first tier base?"

Sally shook her head as they reached the transport "No, we can't go to Alpha Base yet, not unless Beta Base is compromised."

They then climbed into the transport and it lurched forwards as it quickly sped down the streets of the city. As Sonic sat down he looked over to Sally and said "Where exactly is Beta Base?"

Sally also sat down before answering "It's located inside of a dormant volcano in Hill Top Zone."

Sonic whistled slightly "Whoa, Hill Top. Haven't been there in awhile."

Sally sighed "And sadly you're not going to recognize it."

The truck lurched forwards again as it began to get even more speed, right as it left the city.

* * *

9:19 A.M. Hill Top Zone.

* * *

The transport began to shake as it drove into Hill Top. And Sonic said "Why's it so bumpy?"

Sally pointed to the transport's back doors "Take a look for yourself."

Sonic stood up and began to make his way over to the back doors before looking over his shoulder and at Rookie "You coming?"

Rookie shook his head before Sonic opened up one of the doors and looked out into the Zone. He almost immediately saw why the ride had become so bump, it was because the ground was covered in solidified magma rocks, the trees that were in the Zone had all been reduced to burnt husks of their former selves, and any grass that wasn't covered in solidified magma was also burnt to a crisp "H- How did this happen?"

Sally sighed "Eggman suspected that there was a base here long before we saved you. So he used strategic bombing to cause several volcanic eruptions that completely destroyed the flora and fauna of the Zone."

Sonic looked over to his right and saw a mountain that had several large holes in it, and its once pointed top was no longer there. Instead it was completely gone and it almost looked as if it had been blown off from the inside out. Sonic closed the transport's back door and sat down "This.. This is actually terrifying."

Sally let out a fake chuckle "You think that was terrifying.. You should've seen it when the lava was still active, and you should've heard some of the rumors circulating the Resistance that Marble Hill Zone would've blown its top."

Rookie furrowed his brow in confusion "Wait.. Why would Marble Hill erupt if Hill Top was erupting?"

Sonic looked over to Rookie "You don't know? Marble Hill is on top of a super volcano."

Rookie stared at Sonic, his mouth agape "W- What?"

Sonic nodded "Yeah. It almost erupted during my first adventure too.. Still think that Eggman was trying to cause it too."

Suddenly the transport came to a stop and everyone quickly ran out of the back of the transport. Sally then began to lead everyone towards a large mountain covered in solidified magma rock. But specifically they were being led towards a secret door in the side of the mountain, Sally opened up the door and everyone quickly ran into it and once Sonic ran through the door he saw that the Resistance had some how managed to hallow out the entire inside of the mountain and filled it in with their own multi-floored base. Amy quickly pulled pounced onto Sonic and hugged him tightly "Sonic!"

The blue Hedgehog groaned out "Amy.. You.. Know.. What.. Happens.. When you.. Do this!"

Amy quickly let go of Sonic and let the blue Hedgehog properly breath again "Sorry, sorry! It was just terrifying to just be in the base, when the building above us exploded I didn't know how to react."

Sonic grinned at her "Don't sweat it Amy, so long as you're safe, everything's fine."

Amy smiled as she blushed slightly before Knuckles walked over to him "Sonic! What attacked us back there? We weren't able to get a good look at it before we had to evacuate."

Sonic looked over to Knuckles "It was a Phantom Clone Zavok Android, and Infinite."

Knuckles clenched his fists "Of course it was.."

Sonic looked around Beta Base again "This.. Is a cool place though."

Knuckles chuckled slightly as he also took a look around the base "Yeah, it was a G.U.N. base and we found it two weeks before we rescued you."

Sonic then said "Wait, if this place was a G.U.N. base before Eggman took over. Then how'd it get covered in magma rock?"

Knuckles sighed "Eggman created a special ship called the 'Eco Destroyer' it can use the three natural elements, lava, water, and ice to destroy anything underneath it. He tested the Eco Destroyer on Hill Top while also causing the eruptions that covered the rest of the Zone in lava."

Sonic sighed "Of course Egghead's got a new toy."

Knuckles nodded before he then began to lead him, Rookie, and Sally deeper into the base. At the same time he said "Sadly Eggman doesn't use it often so our fleet hasn't been able to get a good shot at it."

Sonic grinned slightly "Don't worry Knux, if you can get me onto the Destroyer I can take it down in five seconds flat."

Sally chuckled "What? Five seconds?"

Sonic shrugged "You can time me if you like."

Suddenly Rookie saw Newt walk by out of the corner of his eye "Uh.. I.. Gotta, go."

He then quickly turned and ran towards Newt while Sonic, Sally, Knuckles, Amy, and Sally continued to walk deeper into the base. And towards this base's Briefing Room. Once they entered the Briefing Room a solder ran over to Knuckles "Sir! The Tornado's coming in fast!"

Knuckles looked over to the soldier "Why hasn't Tails slowed down yet?"

"They're being chased by two Phantom Clones of smaller variants of Metal Sonic."

Knuckles' eyes widened in shock "That's- WE HAVE TO TAKE THOSE THINGS OUT BEFORE EGGMAN FINDS THIS BASE!"

He then quickly began to run towards an elevator at the back of the Briefing Room, and Sonic followed him. Once they reached the landing strip that was built into the top of the mountain its massive doors slid open and they both saw the Tornado flying towards the landing strip, two ultramarine blue robots chasing after the plane as they did. Blue jumped up into the air and crashed into one of the smaller Metal Sonics, even though Tails said that those two robots were smaller than this reality's Metal Sonic they were still taller then him by maybe half a foot or so. One of the smaller Metal Sonic charged towards Tails and Blue quickly jumped up into the air and blocked Metal from hitting Tails, but that also made him almost fall off of the Tornado.

Blue was able to grab onto the side of the pilot's seat as one of the Metals charged towards him. Blue quickly kicked his feet up and they hit the top of the robot's head, Metal Sonic tired to continue to charge forwards as Blue still held onto the side of the pilot seat and his feet were placed against the top of the robots head. Blue took his right foot off of Metal's head and quickly stomped it onto the robot's head, he repeatedly did that same thing over and over again but the robot didn't move at all "Oh come on! Tails! I'm kinda stuck here!"

Tails ducked down as one of the Metals attempted to attack him "I- I got my own problems right now!"

Suddenly Shadow teleported onto the wings of the Tornado. He quickly created and tossed a Chaos Spear at one of the Metals which caused it to shut down and slam into the side of the plane before falling towards the ground bellow. Shadow then threw another Chaos Spear and this time it hit the Metal Sonic that Blue's feet were placed against. That robot shut down as well and it fell towards the ground as well, Blue then pulled himself back up onto the plane and slowly made his way onto the wings again and at the same time Shadow teleported away and back into the Beta Base.

Tails quickly circled around and was able to slow the Tornado's speed down so it could safely land on the landing strip. Tails grabbed onto the USB device that had the Phantom Ruby's data on it before climbing out of the pilot seat and running over to Sonic and Knuckles "I got it, Sonic, Knuckles! I figured out a way to stop Eggman's Phantom Ruby!"

Sonic smiled as he walked over to his friend "Great work Tails!"

He patted the back of the young Fox before he continued "Based on these readings, the Phantom Ruby requires an incredible amount of energy, which only the Death Egg can provide. We simply stop the energy transfer, and BOOM! The Phantom Ruby is practically useless."

Knuckles sighed "Simply? Last I checked the Death Egg is heavily fortified.. Well.. Death Egg."

Tails nodded "True. But I came up with a plan. First we distract Eggman, while he's not paying attention we use the Chemical Plant's database to hack into the Death Egg's weapons systems and shut it down. With no weapons destroying the Death Egg will be a piece of cake. No Death Egg, means the Phantom Ruby is nearly useless."

Knuckles squinted his eyes as he thought over Tails' plan "Well, you know. It's just crazy enough to work. So first we need a distraction, I'm on it!"

Suddenly Amy walked over to Knuckles and said "No way Knuckles, you're too easily distracted. That's not a good trait for a distraction. Plus, after everything that we've been through just recently we kinda need you here. You're our commander!"

Blue walked over to the Resistance gathering "How about this Rookie I've been hearing so much about? Eggman wouldn't ever expect it, heck, it may even throw him off a little."

Knuckles nodded "That's a great idea. But before we can do anything, we have to actually flesh out our plan, and to let our soldiers cool off."

Amy nodded "I think it would be a good idea to wait at least two to three hours before we send our soldiers back into the fight."

Knuckles nodded again before everyone began to make there way back into the elevator and down into the main floor of the Beta Base, and into the Briefing Room where they'd then both flesh out their plan, and wait for the plan to actually begin. But as they walked towards the elevator Sonic looked over to his mini-counterpart "How'd those Metal Sonics start chasing after you?"

Blue shrugged "We were just flying past Green Hill City when suddenly me and Tails heard the sound of the Phantom Ruby, and boom. Metal heads."

Sonic nodded "I'm gonna guess that Infinite made them."

Blue also nodded "I have no clue who Infinite is but I'm going to agree with you."

Sonic chuckled as he shook his head slightly "You're lucky dude, Infinite's crazy."

Blue also chuckled "I bet."

They then stepped into the elevator and Knuckles used his thumb to press the button that would take them down into the base's Briefing Room.

* * *

9:21 A.M. Somewhere On South Island, A Secret Eggman Base.

* * *

Infinite walked through the automatic doors of the base and into a room the Doctor called the "Stasis Room" that was filled with large tubes of swirling blue water. Standing at the far end of the room was Eggman himself, Infinite walked over to the Doctor and said "Why didn't you let me destroy the Resistance when I had the chance?"

Eggman looked over his shoulder and at Infinite "Ha! You think that would be your only chance at killing them? No. The only reason why this Resistance has stayed alive for so long is because I've let them."

Infinite crossed his arms over his chest "And how do I know that you're not compensating for the fact that you've never been able to kill them before, and you still can't now."

Eggman turned around fully and glared down at Infinite "Because I know the locations of all of their bases! While yes, for some I only know which Zone they're in, such as the illusive Beta Base, I know where all the others are. This wold isn't safe for them anymore, and once they're wiped out you'll finally get to see the power I truly command."

Infinite wasn't intimidated by Eggman in the slightest "And what about the Alpha Base?"

Eggman clenched his fists "I- I- I have theories as to where it is located!"

Infinite shook his head "It was bad enough that you prevented me from getting my revenge on Shadow and from destroying the Resistance. But now I find out you don't even know where their last base is? Remind me again why I even take orders from you."

Eggman snarled at Infinite before reaching over to a workbench that sat over to his left. Eggman then grabbed onto, and held up, a black remote and said "This is why."

Before pressing the lone button that was on it. Instantly the Phantom Ruby went off without Infinite telling it too, and the masked Jackal fell to one knee as he groaned out in agony. All the while Eggman stared down at Infinite cackling slightly "You take orders from me, because that Phantom Ruby.. Is MY Ruby, not yours."

Eggman pressed the button again and the Phantom Ruby deactivated. Infinite stood up and put a hand on top of the gemstone "I- I understand.."

Eggman nodded "Good."

He then turned back around and returned to inspecting the multi-monitor wall. Specifically he was inspecting the monitor that showed just how easily the inter-dimensional Sonic and that red Wolf were able to defeat Chaos. Eggman had to figure out a way to make Chaos stronger if it were to be able to compete with two Sonics and a Wolf with a flame thrower. Just then inspiration struck him "Ah ha! Infinite! Bring Chaos here! I've finally figured out how to make him stronger."

Infinite nodded before turning around and walking out of the Stasis Room. At the same time Eggman began to type away at the large keyboard that sat in front of him. He watched the monitor with Chaos's stats on it as they changed, they went from a description of a water based life-form that fed off of Chaos Energy. To a crystal based life-form that fed off of any energy, radioactive or not, that Eggman could get his hands on and this create would be known as "Crystal Chaos."

Eggman then finished perfecting his thesis on how he was going to change Chaos right as said water god walked through the Stasis Room's doors. Eggman turned around and faced the creature, a large sadistic grin on his face "Come now Chaos, it's high time we improve what is already perfect."

He then began to lead Chaos towards an empty tube while Infinite walked back into the room and over to the multi-monitor wall. He looked at each of the monitors before his eyes locked onto a monitor that showed Shadow the Hedgehog standing alone in the snow of Holoska. Infinite clenched his fists "We will meet again Shadow. And I will kill you, I will get my revenge."

Almost instantly Eggman yelled at Infinite to come and help him improve Chaos, and the masked Jackal followed the Doctor's orders.


	19. A Message from No One

**NOTE: THIS CHAPTER WENT THROUGH A PRETTY BIG REWRITE WHICH IS WHAT CAUSED A SLIGHT DELAY IN ITS RELEASE. WHY BRING THIS UP? BECAUSE IF THE DEMAND IS HIGH ENOUGH I MIGHT JUST RE-REWRITE THIS CHAPTER TO TAKE OUT A SPECIFIC PART OF IT THAT YOU'LL SEE LATTER.**

* * *

11:21 A.M. Hill Top Zone, Beta Base.

* * *

Rookie wandered through the second floor of the base just looking around. He had yet to see the entire base yet so he thought that until a new mission came up he'd just wander and memorize the layout of the base. He also wanted to take the time to try and calm himself down, which was something he needed after Matty's death, that fight with Metal Sonic, and the destruction of the old base.

Even though this base was smaller than the previous one, it felt emptier, and it sounded quieter. Maybe it was because this place had been made for G.U.N. a massive government organization, and not the Resistance, a small group of fighters led by someone who's never led an army before. Or maybe it was because the fire of hope that had ignited the day Sonic walked through the Resistance's doors for the first time had been stamped out by Infinite, and Eggman, back at Metropolis. Whatever the reason for this alien like feeling, Rookie hated it, sure war was something that you shouldn't ever feel good about. But this kind of feeling bad about war was new to him, and it felt horrible.

He then turned a corner and almost ran into Sally. Luckily they both were able to stop themselves from colliding and Rookie said "Sorry."

Sally shook her head "No, it's partially my fault too."

Rookie sighed as he nodded. He then started to walk away from Sally when she suddenly said "Hey! Rookie!"

He looked over his shoulder and at her "Yeah?"

"You're looking pretty down.. Do you want to step into what I think is the Special Forces bunks in here?"

Rookie gave her a confused look "You think?"

She shrugged before leading him down the hall "It's labeled for 'Team Dark Bunks' but they aren't really around anymore so, I'm pretty sure it's up for grabs."

Rookie nodded before they reached said room. Sally let Rookie in and they both sat down on one of the bunks, it was actually pretty soft, softer than it probably should've been. Sally looked over to Rookie "You feeling any better?"

He shook his head "No, how am I even supposed to? I watched someone die right in front of my eyes, and I almost convinced myself that it was all my fault.. How am I supposed to feel better after that?"

Sally sighed "I don't think you can."

Rookie then looked around the room. It was pretty plain, just a single bunk, one charging station that was probably meant for Omega but he hasn't been seen in awhile. But something that caught his eye was the still very unconscious Antoine lying on top of a cot in the corner of the room "..Is he ever gonna wake up?"

Sally stared at Antoine before sadly saying "We don't have the proper equipment to figure that out.. But I hope so."

Rookie then looked back over to Sally "..How.. Are you doing?"

She stared at him silently for a moment before saying "Not very good.. My two best friends have been abducted by Eggman and are missing, maybe even worse. And that's not all, it's the first time I've seen something like that happen."

Rookie raised an eyebrow in confusion "W- Really?"

Sally nodded sadly as she slowly stared at the ground "It was two hours or so after Eggman defeated Sonic. My younger brother was still in private school so my parents grabbed the essentials and we all piled into the family car, we drove all the way to the private school and we were able to get inside before the headmaster locked the place down.. What happened after, will never leave my mind."

Sally looked over to him and grinned slightly "Nah, it's fine.. I can't let this bottle up inside of me, that'll make my job harder than it needs to be."

Rookie nodded "A- Alright."

Sally sighed before finally explaining what was the worse thing she's seen so far "So, after the headmaster locked the school down we stayed in there silently for about another hour.. When suddenly there was this big boom at the front of the school. My dad, Maximilian Pender Acorn, and my mom, Alicia Kathy Acorn, both went with the headmaster to investigate the source of that boom."

Rookie knew those two names, Maximilian was the mayor of Green Hill City before Eggman's conquest, and Alicia led an activist group that freed the middle class of Shamar from the oppression of the Shamarian dictatorial king a year before the conquest. And while Rookie remembered those two names Sally continued "Me and my brother, Elias, couldn't see what happened. But we could hear it, Infinite broke into the school and in almost three seconds flat he- he- he killed them."

Rookie stared at Sally, completely surprised "W- Wow, Sally.. I- I'm sorry."

She rubbed the bottom of her eye, wiping some tears off of her eyes as she did "H- Heh, thanks Rookie... D- Do you want to see a picture of them?"

Rookie shrugged "Sure."

Sally then reached into her pocket and pulled out a small picture. She then showed it at him and he saw that in the back of the picture there was a Maximilian who was wearing a blue tuxedo with red cuffs, a white undershirt, and a red tie that was wrapped around his neck that had a golden pendant placed on the top of it, said pendant had the Acorn family crest placed on it. He also had on blue pants that matched his tuxedo, and Max's hair was the same color as Sally's but the main difference was that Max's hair had grey streaks in it. Standing next to Max was Alicia who was wearing a dress that was the same blue color as Max's clothing, and she also had hair similar to Sally's as well.

Standing in front of the two adults was Sally, and standing next to her was Elias. He was wearing a black sweater with a white undershirt, and beige pants. Rookie stared at the picture in awe "This is.. Wow."

Sally nodded before putting the picture back into her pocket "We took that picture on my brother's sixteenth birthday.. He was only eighteen by the time Eggman took over."

Rookie nodded "I'm actually nineteen as of like.. Yesterday or something."

Sally looked over to him "Really? You didn't even want to celebrate your birthday?"

Rookie shook his head "No, we had other things to focus on.. Besides, I can't have my birthday without my sister, Fuchsia's, mediocre singing. My brother, Danny's, off theme clothing. And my other brother, Corvin's, strange presents."

Sally chuckled slightly "Fair enough.. I'm, twenty three actually."

Rookie was about to say something when there was suddenly a loud bagging on the door followed by the voice of Shadow saying "Rookie, Knuckles wants to speak with you."

Both Sally and Rookie could hear the sound of Shadow walking away from the door and down a hall. Sally looked over to Rookie and said to him "Go on."

Rookie nodded before standing up off of the bunk and walking out of the room, and to the Beta Base's Briefing Room. Once Rookie entered the room he saw Knuckles standing next to a large metal table that sat in the center of the room, and on the other side of the table was Amy. Knuckles looked over to Rookie and said "Sorry to spring this on you all of a sudden, but, we have a mission for you."

Rookie walked over to the table and Knuckles continued "Tails has found out that the Phantom Ruby is being powered by the Death Egg. Which means that we're going to have to find a way up into the Death Egg and take it down."

Rookie nodded "Alright, then what's my mission?"

Knuckles grinned "You're going to serve as a distraction along side a very small group of Resistance soldiers by attacking one of Eggman's manufacturing plants in Green Hill."

Rookie nodded again "Who am I distracting for?"

Amy answered for Knuckles "You're going to be the distraction that lets Sonic into the Chemical Plant."

Rookie was about to say something when suddenly every single computer in the room turned on at once. The screens all displayed the same thing, string after string of text scrolled across them until suddenly the lights in the room turned off with the only light left in the room being the light that came off of the, now, green colored monitors. Amy attempted to do something to one of the computers but nothing worked, that's when suddenly a deep and slightly distorted voice came over Briefing Room's PA system " **So, you want to take down the Death Egg?** "

Knuckles glared at the closest computer and said "Who are you? How did you do this?"

The distorted voice chuckled slightly " **For the time being, you can call me A.D.A.M.** **Anonymous. Or just A.D.A.M.** "

Amy crossed her arms over her chest with an annoyed look on her face "So A.D.A.M. what do you want?"

" **I want to help you! That's all.** "

Knuckles scoffed and shook his head before saying "How can you help us?"

" **I have a device that can easily disable the Death Egg's weapon systems.** "

Amy suddenly grew a shocked expression on her face "Wait, how'd you know about the plan?"

" **I've been listening in on all transmissions that come over former G.U.N. networks. Your's was no different, besides, its quite easy to hack into your PA system and listen in on any conversation I'd like too.** "

Knuckles stomped over to one of the computers, as if he were angrily approaching some one in person "How do we know you're not going to rat us out to Eggman?"

" **Did I not just say that I've been listening to you for a long time now? If I wanted to give any information to Eggman, I would've already done it. Of course, if I did that he'd probably have me executed due to how I did get into your network.** "

Amy sighed "Fine.. Y- You can help us.. What do you want?"

" **It's not what I want, you can break into the Death Egg with out my device, it'll just be much harder than you think.** "

Knuckles looked over to Amy, a look of disbelief and surprise, before looking back over to the monitor he was standing in front of "Alright.. How do we get our hands on your device?"

" **Simple! All you have to do is come to my secret little base and I'll hand it right over to you.** "

Knuckles then said "Alright. First, I'm not going to your base. I still don't trust you. And second, where's this secrete base of your's?"

" **Check the monitor to your right Knuckles.** "

The red Echidna followed A.D.A.M.'s order and saw that the screen to his right had a map on it "..A team of three will be arriving at your base shortly. But if even one of them gives me a report that I don't like, they're out of there."

" **I promise that nothing bad will happen to them.** "

Suddenly the monitors all turned off, and the lights turned back on. Knuckles and Amy turned around to see Rookie still standing in the room, very confused and scared, Knuckles tried to give Rookie a friendly smile and said "Don't worry Rookie. You're not going to.. There, and as for the mission you were supposed to be going on. Is going to be delayed to midnight so we can make sure that the team of three has enough to to go there, come back, and give us the device.. And if we're lucky attacking the manufacturing plant at midnight might throw Eggman for a loop even more than before A.D.A.M. delayed everything."

Rookie nodded "Okay.. Who is the team of three, and where are they going to?"

* * *

11:31 A.M. West Side Island, The Old Chemical Plant Zone.

* * *

In a bright flash of cyan blue light. Shadow, Espio, and Silver all appeared inside of the ruins of Eggman's original Chemical Plant. The three of them began to walk down the yellow metal pathway that was covered in ash and dust from when it had been destroyed by Sonic and Tails during the first Death Egg Launch Crisis. They then reached a motionless metal sliding door that would lead into the Chemical Plant if it were active. Silver held his hand out and a cyan aura grew around him and the door, Silver then moved his hand to the right and the right door groaned as it slid open just enough for the three of them to slid into the Plant one at a time. Once they entered the facility Silver's cyan aura grew brighter so that it could illuminate their surroundings like a lantern.

As they continued to walk forwards the smell of acid and other strange smells began to enter their nostrils and irritate their sinuses. Well except for Shadow because of his genetically modified alien hybrid genes that allowed him to ignore things like acidic smells that irritated the other two. They continued to walk forwards, approaching a large building, when suddenly they heard something scurry by over head. Shadow immediately looked upwards and towards the source of that sound but there wasn't anything there.

Espio whispered to Shadow "What was it?"

Shadow sighed "Couldn't see it, but I'm hoping it's a rat."

Silver leaned in towards Espio and Shadow "Why are we whispering? And why would it be better for that sound to come from a rat and not something else?"

Shadow looked over to Silver and ignored the first part of his question "Because if it wasn't a rat than that means we're being stalked by something."

Almost immediately something jumped overhead, but due to how dark the inside of the Chemical Plant was they couldn't see what it was. As that something jumped overhead Silver was about to let out a yelp of fear when suddenly Espio appeared behind him and covered his mouth "Shh! If we're lucky, what ever is stalking us still thinks it has the element of surprise."

Espio then slowly let go of Silver's mouth and the white Hedgehog nodded. The three of them then returned to walking forwards while they all tried to both keep an eye on their surroundings, and not making it obvious, which may have been easy for Espio and Shadow, but for Silver it was actually really hard. They then reached the building that the map Knuckles had given them said was A.D.A.M's base. When suddenly what ever was stalking them jumped overhead again, but it landed on top of the building they were trying to get into. Silver held his hand out and was about to telekinetic open the door when Shadow silently put his hand on his outstretched arm and whispered "Act as if you're struggling to open the door. If our little stalker is actually dangerous, it will use that as an opportunity to strike."

Silver would've nodded, if he wasn't trying to look as if he hadn't noticed that stalking thing. Silver then pretended to struggle to have trouble opening the door with his telekinesis while the other two kept a secret watch on their surroundings. Ten seconds of eerie silence went by and Espio was about to tell Silver to actually open the door when suddenly their stalker jumped down from the top of the building, and landed behind the three of them. Shadow attempted to spin around immediately but before he could turn around completely a large fist hit the side of his head and made him fall to the ground, Espio on the other hand spun around quickly and attempted to throw a throwing star at their stalker but it was able to quickly cartwheel out of the way of the throwing star. Silver used his telekinesis to pick up any debris sitting around him and, as he turned around, he threw the debris at the stalker.

It quickly jumped over the debris and somersaulted towards Silver. It jumped up into the air and once it landed on the ground a large hand grabbed onto him and threw him off of the bridge, but Espio was able to quickly grab onto Silver's hand and pull him pack up onto the pathway. At the same time Shadow quickly spin-kicked and took the stalker's legs out from underneath it. But instead of falling flat on its face it somersaulted again and quickly jumped up onto its feet, Silver and Espio both stood up straight while Shadow and the stalker both did the same thing. It quickly ran towards the three of them when Shadow yelled out "Chaos Contro-"

Then the voice of A.D.A.M. came over the building's exterior PA system that was some how still up and running " **Tangle! I literally told you not to do the vary thing you're currently doing!** "

The stalker skid to a halt and suddenly a female voice said "Ro- A.D.A.M.! They-"

" **Do you even listen to your communicator anymore?** "

The stalker sighed before two large flood lights that sat over the building's door turned on and illuminated their surroundings. Which let them see that the stalker, who is apparently named Tangle, was a female, white and grey Ring-Tailed Lemur that had purple eyes, and wore a short sleeved black bodysuit with orange stripes that ran down the sides of her body a yellowish orange sleeveless top, detailed yellowish orange hi-tops with white laces and soles, black details on either side of the shoes, and orange cuffs on the tops of them. She also wore yellowish orange sports tape that was wrapped around her wrists and the fingerless black gloves that had blocky orange backs on them, she also had a long tail that looked as if its tip was clenched up into a fist.

The building's door then slid open on its own. Tangle then walked past the three of them and into the building, the two Hedgehogs and the one Chameleon looked at each other before walking into the building themselves. Once they got inside of said building they realized that it wasn't actually a structure you were supposed to be inside of, instead it was an old chemical silo that no longer had any kind of liquid in it and instead it was filled with cable after cable that crawled across the ground, and up the walls. And sitting against the wall in front of the three of them was at least three desks sat side by side, and covered in electronic devices ranging from computers, to systemic detection devices, and even a microwave. And sitting in front of those desks was a large black leather chair, as the three of them approached the chair Tangle jumped up into the air and used her tail to grab onto a low hanging hook which she would then use to swing herself onto an alcove that sat high up on the left wall of the silo.

As the other three got closer to the chair the undistorted voice of A.D.A.M. said "Shadow, Silver, Espio.. I'll be honest, I expected two of you to show up, but I never expected to see Silver along side you two.. My other guesses were Vector, or maybe even Sonic himself."

Shadow stepped forwards, almost tripping over a cluster of wires as he did "Who are you actually?"

The chair then turned around and a purple walrus that was wearing a brown wool lined jacket with green eyes, yellow fingerless gloves, black and white shoes with yellow socks, a pair of yellow goggles placed on the top of his head, and hidden underneath his brown jacket was a green tool-belt that was slung across his body from his shoulder "Name's Rotor the Walrus."

Espio inspected Rotor's body closely before saying "You seem capable of protecting yourself.. Why is it you have what appears to be a guard watching over you?"

Rotor shrugged "I may be a pretty strong guy. But Tangle is much more agile than I am so she's better at dealing with anything that comes her way.. But she has trouble listening to what I say at times!"

From atop her perch Tangle rolled her eyes and chuckled slightly. Silver then said "Alright, where's that device we were sent to get?"

Rotor stood up and walked over to one of the desks that sat behind him. He then picked up a black USB device and handed it to Shadow while saying "Here it is, free of charge."

Shadow stared at the device "This it?"

Rotor nodded "Yes it is, as soon as someone plugs this into one of Eggman's computers, or any other electronic device that you can plug it into. It'll bypass the protective firewall and give the user immediate access to the deepest parts of Eggman's network. I've used it multiple times already."

Shadow nodded before the three of them began to turn around. At the same time Tangle said "Rotor! Remember what we debated about!"

Rotor sighed before saying "Wait! Wait."

They turned around and Rotor continued "Before you three got here me and Tangle had a long debate over our communicators about wither or not we should physically join the Resistance.. And after what felt like forever, we've decided that if your commanders are willing we'd like to join the Resistance."

Espio looked over to Shadow, and past Silver. Shadow sighed before nodding which allowed Espio to say "We'd be glad to add two new members to our ranks."

Rotor smiled and Tangle jumped down from her perch and landed on the silo's floor. She then said "So where's the base?"

The other three walked over to Tangle and Rotor before Shadow said "Rotor, grab onto Tangle's hand."

The purple Walrus did as Shadow said, than the other three grabbed each other's hands, and Shadow grabbed Rotor's free hand before the black and red Hedgehog yelled out "Chaos! Control!"

And in an instant the five of them teleported out of the old Chemical Plant in a bright flash of blue light, and to the Beta Base.


	20. Midnight Distractions

**SORRY THIS CHAPTER TOOK AWHILE TO COME OUT, RAN INTO SOME DIFFICULTIES WHILE WRITING IT.**

* * *

12:13 A.M. South Island, Green Hill Zone, Outside of One of Eggman's Manufacturing Plants.

* * *

Rookie stood alone on the top of a large hill that overlooked the even larger manufacturing plant in front of him. The reason why he was just standing there was because the plan was that Rookie would rush into the plant's western side, while a separate team of Resistance soldiers would rush in through the northern parts of the base. And all Rookie had to do for the time being was wait for the signal to run inside, right at that moment the much less garbled voice of Knuckles, thanks to Beta Base's G.U.N. grade communications network, came over his ear piece "Rookie, head inside. But be careful! We still have no clue what Eggman's plan is, we have no clue where he's making it at, and we only have one more day until its executed, so you better hustle!"

Rookie nodded as he began to run down the hill "Hustling now Knuckles!"

The only lights that illuminated the dark surroundings of the midnight Green Hill Zone was the manufacturing plant's large spotlights and the various other lights that were inside of the plant itself. Suddenly the ground rumbled and one of the Resistance soldiers that was rushing into the northern side of the plant came over the Network "Unidentified heat source detected! Requesting analysis!"

As Rookie raised his Wispon up and fired it at the Egg Pawns that were guarding the western door Amy's voice said "Hang on, it's a multi-legged battlemech! The energy readings are off the charts!"

Rookie then rushed into the plant and across a catwalk that looked over a massive room underneath it filled with enslaved prisoners, and robots, all being forced to create weapons for Eggman. At the same time Vector came over the Network "So Eggman had another weapon up his sleeve."

He then stepped off of the catwalk and into a hallway, as he did five doors ahead of him opened up and Egg Pawns stepped out from inside of the rooms. Rookie dropped own into a slide and kicked the robot's legs out from underneath them. Once he stood up again he effortlessly used his Wispon to take out the robots before turning back around and continuing forwards. He then exited the facility and entered some sort of fenced off mining area that was covered in sand and dust from both the large desert Eggman had created, and the inhumane mining labor Eggman was forcing his organic prisoners through. As Rookie ran to the other side of the mining area he heard a robot screech come from over head before a massive crab like mech landed behind the fence to his left. Its multiple red eyes stared down at him like spot lights before it then let out another screech and stomped away from the mining area.

Rookie then reentered the facility and ran into a massive room being used to create giant bombs similar to the ones him and Sonic took care of back at the Arsenal Pyramid, at the same time Knuckles said "Diversionary tactics are all about the decoy you use. Just go wild and get their attention!"

Amy then quickly added "Don't push your luck too far though."

Sonic then suddenly said "And hey, leave the Chemical Plant to me. Make as much noise as you can!"

Rookie nodded and said "Don't worry guys, I got this."

He then glanced over to his left and saw one of those giant bombs, and it gave him an idea. He quickly skid to a halt before running off towards one of the bombs, once he reached it he tore off the hatch that was covering the control panel before saying to himself "This should make a lot of noise, and if I'm careful I won't push my luck too far.. Right?"

He then finished setting the bomb's timer before quickly spinning back around and running down the path he was running down before. As he ran he past by a room that's door was partially open, and that let him hear the sounds of electronic beeping and whiring coming from inside of it. Sadly his curiosity got the better of him and he reluctantly walked over to the door and peeked into the room. What he saw made him gasp in shock, he saw the Roboticized bodies of Bunnie and Nicole standing next to each other in a line. And there were five different cables plugged into the side of Bunnie's head, Rookie quickly forced the door open and ran into the room where he then saw a large glass capsule sitting in the center of the room. That must've been the device Eggman uses for Roboticizing someone, but he didn't have time to think about that capsule, instead he had to figure out a way to help Bunnie and Nicole. He ran over to the computer that the cables that were plugged into Bunnie were coming from, and once he turned it back on he saw that the computer screen read "Deleting Conscious: In Progress."

Rookie's eyes widened in shock as he quickly attempted to stop the computer from doing that very thing. Sadly he just couldn't figure it out, so instead he ran over to Bunnie and used his adrenaline fueled muscles to tare the cables out of the side of her head. Once the cables came out of her head her robotic body turned on and her digital eyes looked around the room very confused "W- Where am ah?"

Rookie then quickly came into her view "You're inside of one of Eggman's manufacturing plants! A- And, well.. He's kinda. Roboticized you and Nicole."

Bunnie yelled out "What?!"

Before looking down at her hands and body. She then looked over to Nicole and she Bunnie said "A- Ah don't understand.. The last thing ah remembered was being hit by that fake Shadow's Chaos Blast and passing out."

Rookie hesitantly said "A- After that. Metal Sonic picked you and Nicole up, and flew off with the two of you."

Suddenly several cables all came out of the computer next to Nicole on their own and attempted to plug themselves into her head. Rookie quickly ran over to them and grabbed onto the cables all with one hand. Sadly a new cable came out of the computer and it stretched over to Rookie and shocked him with a sudden jolt of electricity. As Rookie let go of the cables in his hand he yelled out "Why are the cables moving on their own?!"

Bunnie attempted to move her legs and say "Ah think its for defensive purposes." at the same time.

The cables that Rookie had let go of then reconnected with the side of Nicole's now robotic head while the cable that had shocked him retreated back into the computer. Rookie quickly recovered and ran over to the computer that was attempting to delete Nicole's conscious, he then quickly began to try and stop the computer from doing that very thing. But he just didn't know how, so instead, he quickly searched around the computer and found a tab labeled "Emergency Backup." Rookie entered that tab and saw all sorts of various different commands, and he just randomly clicked on one that looked positive.

Suddenly the tab closed and suddenly a message popped up on the screen that read "Downloading Brain Functions: In Progress."

Rookie looked over to Bunnie, who had just managed to relearn how to walk, and said "This is a good thing.. Right?"

She shrugged and suddenly that popup message said "Download Complete"

Before the computer's screen turned off completely. Rookie and Bunnie both stared at the black screen for several silent minutes when suddenly the screen began to glitch out, green lines and bars appeared all over it, before it suddenly stopped again and a thin green line appeared in the center of the screen. Then suddenly the voice of Nicole came through the computer's speakers "H- H- Hello?"

That thin line of green shook as though it were measuring a sound wave as Nicole's voice spoke. Rookie stared at the screen in disbelief "Wh- Nicole?! What happened?!"

"I- I- I don't know! Wh- Where am I?!"

Bunnie walked over to Rookie and said "Ah think you've turned her into some kind of A.I. Rookie."

He looked over to her in confused shock while Nicole yelled out "WH- WH- WHAT!?"

Suddenly the roof of the manufacturing plant shook and Rookie could hear the sound of that multi-legged battlemech stomping across the roof. As he remembered why he was sent here he said "We can figure out what happened and how to reverse it latter! Right now you two need to get out of here!"

Rookie then began to search around the room for something to transport Nicole with. While he did that Bunnie said "Wait, why are you here?"

He ran over to a workbench and slid open one of its drawers while also answering Bunnie's question "I'm here to serve as a distraction for Sonic, who's trying to infiltrate the Chemical Plant, so that the Resistance can destroy the Death Egg."

Bunnie looked over to the computer screen expecting to see Nicole but remembering that she's now an A.I. right as she saw the almost blank screen. Bunnie then looked back over to Rookie and said "How much have we missed?"

Rookie then grabbed ahold of a black USB and quickly spun around before running towards the computer Nicole was on. At the same time he said "A lot, but we can talk all about it back at the Beta Base."

He then plugged the USB into the computer as Bunnie said "What?! What happened to the Gamma Base?!"

Rookie began to download A.I. Nicole onto the USB as he said "Again! We can talk about what you've missed later!"

Once he finished yelling at Bunnie Nicole finished downloading onto the USB. Rookie then unplugged the device and handed it to Bunnie "Get out of here and don't get caught."

Bunnie nodded and she was about to run forwards when suddenly jet thrusters that were hidden in her feet went off and she was lifted off of the ground slightly before she fell back onto the ground. Rookie and Bunnie both looked at each other a look of shock on their faces, well as shocked as Bunnie's mechanical face could look. Rookie then said "Use those to escape."

Bunnie nodded before she then ran out of the room and a second after she did Rookie also ran out of the room. The two of them then ran out of the facility and into another mining area, Bunnie's foot jets turned back on and she flew up into the air. At the same time that giant battlemech landed behind the left fence and then quickly leaped up into the air and landed somewhere over to Rookie's right. He quickly jumped up and climbed the fence that was in front of him, and once he landed on the ground outside of the facility he glanced over his shoulder and saw a massive explosion come out from the back of the facility. And once that explosion went off the facility's sirens went off and robots began to pour out of the facility and began to run after Rookie, who then said into his earpiece "Distraction successful!"

Knuckles' voice then said "Perfect. Time to head back."

Rookie then began to run towards the end of the Zone when suddenly the voice of Amy said "Hold on! Rookie there's a massive energy source approaching!"

Suddenly the massive battlemech landed behind Rookie and the mech began to run towards him. Rookie yelled out in fear before running forwards in complete fear, Rookie then ran underneath a stone archway and the battlemech crashed through it which caused Rookie to glance over his shoulder and accidentally trip over a rock in front of him. He fell onto the ground and quickly curled up into a fetal position hoping that when he was going to be crushed by one of the legs of the battlemech it wouldn't be hurt. But instead he heard the sound of the mech running over him, and past him, Rookie stood up and saw that the battlemech wasn't trying to crush him, it was trying to run off towards the Chemical Plant. Of course Rookie at first thought that the mech would have to somehow figure out a way to swim to the Northern Isle, but that assumption was suddenly destroyed when he saw the mech's legs extend long enough for it to reach the bottom of the ocean.

The voice of Knuckles then said "We can't let that thing get to the Chemical Plant. Rookie, keep it busy there as long as you can!"

Rookie nodded before running after the mech, but he couldn't catch up to it on foot so he quickly thrust his hand out and used his grappling hook to swing himself in front of the mech. He then returned to running away from the mech as he realized just how stupid of a plan he had come up with to keep that mech busy. The mech's legs then began to kick up massive chunks of and Rookie yelled out continuously as he jumped and rolled out of the way of those rock chunks. The battlemech slowly began to catch up with Rookie, chunks of rocks still being launched at Rookie as it did. Rookie saw the battlemech's shadow be cast over him as well as the light of its red eyes. Rookie quickly spun around and used his grappling hook pull himself up to the mech's head and once he hit the side of it he jumped off of it and used his grappling hook to swing himself underneath the bottom of the mech.

He continued to swing around the mech tangling its legs as he did before he then quickly tangled up the back legs of the mech and swung forwards and his grappling hook detached itself automatically causing him to land on the ground and to also tumble across it. The battlemech didn't understand the fact that its legs were tangled up so it began to trip over itself which caused it to fall onto the ground. Rookie quickly jumped out of the mech's way as it tumbled across the ground as well, its massive back legs came over the top of its head and they slammed against the ground as it finally skid to a halt. Rookie stared at the empty multiple red eyes before a voice that sounded very similar to Metal Sonic's came out of it "Warning! Warning! The multi-legged battlemech: Death Crab, has been compromised! Engaging self-destruct!"

Rookie's eyes widened in shock before he quickly spun around and ran from the battlemech, that's apparently named the Death Crab, right before it exploded sending scraps of metal into the air. Rookie dodged the falling metal debris before turning around to see the Death Crab's destroyed body lying motionless on the ground. Rookie then turned back around again and began to finally run out of the Zone heading towards the ship that he had used to get from West Side Island to South Island.

* * *

May 21st, 2013, 10:45 A.M. Mediter Sea, The Former Shamarian Prison Island Qamar, Now Called Jackal Burrow.

* * *

Infinite sat alone on top of the once feared prison walls. After he and his squad completely overthrew the guards, warden, and even repelled the Shamarian National Guard, the prison became their own independent micronation. And Infinite was its leader, but even still, he longed to return to the very thing that got him imprisoned in the first place. He wanted to return to his mercenary work, even though he wasn't any good at it. He looked over to his right hand which was gripping onto the hilt of a red sword with a curved blade, said blade once belonged to his father, but he had died three months before Infinite and his squad took over the prison. And one would think that he'd be sad that his own father had died, but they'd be wrong. A day after his father's death and his brother, Zawar, showed up at the prison and told Infinite that his own father said that he was a disappointment in his father's own eyes.

But that didn't matter to him now. Now he's the leader of a micronation that was once under the control of the most oppressive country in the world. He knew he wasn't a disappointment, it was his father who was a disappointment in Infinite's own eyes. Suddenly the voice of Infinite's best friend, Abdul-Ba'ith Qutb Amari, said "You sit'n on this wall again?"

Infinite looked over to his left and saw Abdul climb up the wall and sit next to him. Infinite nodded before saying "Yeah."

Abdul brought his legs up and crossed them "You thinking about deep stuff again?"

Infinite nodded again and Abdul said "Is it still about your family?"

Infinite nodded again but this time he said "Nothing else to think about."

Abdul shrugged "Nah.. You're in charge of a nation so you got that kind of stuff to do."

Infinite sighed "I know, I know... But.. I miss being the only thing I'm good at."

Abdul raised an eyebrow in slight confusion "And that might be?"

"A mercenary! Sure my own father pressured me into becoming one, but its the only thing I'm actually good at."

Abdul sighed "I don't blame you, being a member of this place's own national guard is boring."

Infinite looked over to Abdul "I don't like to hear that kind of talk come from the soldiers who are protecting my seat of power."

Abdul rolled his eyes before saying "If you really want to go back to being a mercenary then.. Go ahead, I'm sure Umniyah will be very happy that you're gone."

Infinite sighed as he slid his sword into its sheath, which was strapped to his back "She probably will be.."

After a silent moment Infinite stood up and stared at the sea in front of him. Saltiest in the world they say, but he's never taken a drink out of it so he wouldn't know. Infinite then suddenly said "I want all of you to come with me."

Abdul looked up to Infinite "Huh?"

The standing Jackal nodded "Yeah. I want you, Umniyah, Ragheb, Qasim, Shahlah, and Halimah to come with me."

Abdul continued to stare up at Infinite "Wh- Really? I mean sure our little squad was pretty good at overthrowing the warden and all of his guards but.. Aside from you, and Qasim, we've never done mercenary work. Besides, I think everyone other than Umniyah and Ragheb thinks that this little nation is gonna collapse in maybe a year."

Infinite sighed "If you and the others don't want to come with me, than they don't have to. But I'm going wither they like it or not."

Abdul went silent before staring looking over to the sea. He then sighed as he stood up next to Infinite "It's gonna be a lot of trouble convincing Umniyah to come with us."

Infinite looked over to his friend and raised an eye brow "What about the others?"

Abdul shrugged "Umniyah really wants to run this place man. She's gonna be harder than the others."

Infinite chuckled "Really? Shahlah's her sister, and you don't think you and Shahlah working together can convince Umniyah to come with us?"

Abdul sighed "We could.. If Shahlah's willing."

Infinite grew a big grin "Don't worry, she'll be willing. Because I am L-"

Suddenly the voice of Umniyah yelled up to Abdul and Infinite "Boss! Come quick!"

Infinite turned around and looked down at her "What is it?"

She was about to answer when suddenly the voice of Infinite's brother yelled out "L-"

"INFINITE!"

He grumbled to himself before crossing his arms over his chest, once he did the world around him turned into red cubes before slowly dissolving back into the real world.

* * *

2017 Present Day, 12:34 A.M. West Side Island, Metropolis Zone, Eggman's Base In the City, Infinite's Sleeping Quarters.

* * *

Infinite then turned around and walked over to the PA that sat next to his mechanical door, he pressed a button on the control panel before saying into the speaker "What?"

The voice of Eggman then yelled back "What?! WHAT?! How many times must I tell you! Do not use the Phantom Ruby to fulfill your false fantasies! It taxes the preexisting ones to heavily!"

Infinite took his thumb off of the button and said "And?"

"And?! Rrrrgggh! Chaos as broken free from its illusion! Get in here! AND FIX THIS BEFORE IT BRAKES SOMETHING OF USE!"

Infinite rolled his eyes before turning off the PA and walking out of his room. Once he finally reached the Stasis Room and once the doors slid open Infinite saw Eggman standing in front of him "Fix. This."

He then pointed to the tube where an agitated Chaos was trapped inside of. Infinite shoved past Eggman while saying "Yeah, yeah."

And once he got close enough to Chaos Infinite made the Phantom Ruby go off. The room quickly dissolved into a white void, Eggman disappeared, and Chaos's vision went fuzzy. It could feel itself fall onto the ground and it could feel some sort of strange warmth in front if it, once its vision cleared Chaos saw Tikal standing in front of him "Morning sleepy head."

She then sat down in front of Chaos and the water creature slowly readjusted itself so it was sitting too. Chaos could see that behind Tikal was a large grass pathway that led into a large bright glow that's light felt warm to Chaos's aquatic body. Tikal suddenly said "You feeling alright?"

Chaos shook its head and Tikal said "Oh, is its something Omi did?"

Omi was a Chao, the only Chao that wasn't afraid of messing with Chaos or Tikal. Chaos shook its head again before telepathically giving Tikal an explanation, after a silent moment Tikal finally said "I know that you don't like being confused.. But we both know that the only way to protect the Chaos now is to do what the Doctor and that Jackal say."

Chaos let out a soft hum that was its version of a sigh before giving Tikal a look that meant "alright" Tikal smiled brightly "Good. Now its time to wake up, play nice, and stay safe."

Chaos nodded before it closed its eyes and disappeared. Tikal waited for Chaos to disappear completely before standing up and letting her form fall apart, Infinite crossed his arms over his chest as the final pieces of Tikal's form left him. In all honesty, he hated using the Phantom Ruby to do this, but he also didn't want to have to deal with Perfect Chaos so things evened out in the end. The illusion Infinite created dissipated and once it did he turned around and said to Eggman "There, Chaos is pacified."

The Doctor grew a wicked grin "Good, good. Now out of the way."

As he walked towards Chaos's tube he shoved Infinite out of his way. The Jackal silently glared at Eggman behind his back before looking over to his left and at that wall covered in monitors. He fixated on the monitor that showed the burning manufacturing plant in Green Hill, which caused him to say "I'm surprised that you're contempt with letting that Wolf get away with destroying your Crab mech, and with damaging that plant so much."

Eggman began to type away at a computer that sat next to Chaos's tube while saying "While yes, I could've crushed that Wolf in the plat whenever I wanted. I let him live for a sole purpose."

He then pointed to a monitor on the left wall and Infinite looked over to it, said monitor displayed a map of South Island, and there was a singular cream colored dot slowly traveling across the digital version of the island. Infinite then said "You let him free that Rabbit Metal Sonic captured, so she can lead us to the Beta Base."

Eggman nodded "Precisely. But until that moment comes, you are staying here and. NOT! Using the Phantom Ruby to create false fantasies, and I am finishing my improvement of Chaos."

Infinite then nodded before turning around and beginning to walk out of the room. As he did he silently grumbled to himself "They wouldn't have been false fantasies. If you would've listened to me."

But Eggman of course didn't hear Infinite so he let the Jackal leave the room unharmed and free to return to his sleeping quarters.


	21. Hack the Network Terminal

**WE'VE REACHED A LITTLE OVER THREE THOUSAND VIEWS! YEAH THAT'S PRETTY MUCH IT, PLEASE ENJOY THIS CHAPTER.**

* * *

12:16 A.M. Northern Isle, The Chemical Plant.

* * *

Sonic ran towards the massive complex ahead of him, as he ran he said into his earpiece "I'm almost at the Chemical Plant. How's Rookie doing with the distraction?"

Knuckles chuckled as he said "So far so good. We might have to stop using the code name, Rookie, if the kid keeps this up."

The voice of Tails then said "Next, we've got to get to the computers at the Chemical Plant and shut down the Death Egg's weapons system."

Sonic grinned "Perfect, I've been waiting for my turn to bust some heads!"

He then stepped onto the yellow metal pathway that led into the Chemical Plant and continued to run farther into the complex. As he began to run into an area of the plant that sat over the frigid Northern Sea when suddenly Knuckles said "Rookie did a great job as a decoy. Time for you to do your thing. We have to capture the Chemical Plant. If anyone tries to stop you, take them out!"

Sonic then began to run towards a metal bridge ahead of him as he said "Say no more! They won't know what hit them!"

He then boosted forwards and crashed into three Egg Pawns who were walking across the bridge, unaware of Sonic speeding towards them. He then quickly jumped up into the air and grabbed onto a cargo hook above him that was attached to a track that lead towards the Chemical Plant's secondary database. As Sonic used the hook to travel forwards anti-air turrets that sat alone on their own platforms out in the Northern Sea turned on and aimed at the track Sonic was on, one of them fired at a piece of track ahead of Sonic which caused him and the hook to fall as soon as they both reached the spot of the missing track. But Sonic was able to quickly let go of the hook and spin around in the air so he would land feet first onto a set of train tracks that lead towards a different area of the Chemical Plant than the one he was heading towards before.

He grinded across the rails until he saw a pathway underneath him, and the rails, so he quickly jumped off of the rail he was on and down to the pathway bellow. He then sped forwards when suddenly another one of those anti-air turrets fired at the pathway which forced Sonic to jump up into the air, off of the debris, and up to another cargo hook. Said hook then began to move forwards and over the Northern Sea, meanwhile, those anti-air turrets aimed at Sonic and the closest one of them charged up a shot as Sonic said "Come on! Can't a Hedgehog infiltrate his arch nemesis's second Chemical Plant in a frigid wasteland in peace?"

The turret then fired off and Sonic sighed "Guess not."

He quickly let go of the hook and landed on the speeding anti-air ballistic round, he then charged up a Spin Dash before rocketing off of the round and towards the turret that had fired it. Sonic landed on the domed roof of the turret and he then quickly jumped up into the air and shot back down towards the top of the turret, curled up in a Spin Ball, before cutting right through it. As soon as he came out of the bottom of the turret he grabbed onto a small support beam that sat horizontally in between two other, massive, support beams that looked more like the legs of a chair. Above him he heard the sound of the turret exploding thanks to the damage he had caused to it, when suddenly he heard the sound of a different turret fire at him over to his right.

Sonic quickly spun around on the beam like an acrobat before letting go and flying through the air. A massive ballistic shot whizzed by him, its metal shell just barely grazing the tips of his head spines, before Sonic then landed on the wall of a large silo that stood alone in the ocean. The anti-air turret that had almost hit him aimed at him yet again, but before it could fire, Sonic quickly jumped off of the silo wall and Air Boosted towards the turret. He then quickly spun around in the air right as the turret fired again, luckily that spinning allowed Sonic to whiz over the top of the round and land on the top of the cannon that the shot had been fired from. Sonic turned around as a chrome Egg Pawn that was standing on a small lift came out of the top of the turret, it aimed its twin cannon arms at Sonic before they both fired at him.

Sonic quickly jumped up into the air as the chrome Pawn's rapidly firing bullets flew past him. Sonic then pulled himself into a Spin Ball before timing a Homing Attack just right so that he'd hit the Pawn without any fear of getting grazed, or hit, by its bullets. He tore through the head of the chrome Pawn which caused it to explode, but Sonic wasn't done yet, he then quickly burrowed through the turret and came out the other side unscathed yet again. Sonic quickly grabbed onto another horizontal support beam and yet again used it to fling himself up into the air and up towards another cargo hook. He grabbed onto it and used it to propel himself forwards and towards an opening in the facility. The hook reached the end of its track and its sudden stop caused Sonic to be flung up into the air, but the Hedgehog didn't mind that, in fact he had a big grin on his face as he began to fall down towards that opening. All the while he said "I'm heading into the Chemical Plant now!"

Suddenly grids of purple lasers appeared below him which only caused Sonic to say "Heh. I'd enjoy this even more if I wasn't on a mission!"

He quickly sky dived past the lasers before landing in a hallway that had glass walls that showed pipes filled with bright blue chemicals flowing in them. Sonic quickly sped forwards and said into his earpiece "Okay, I'm in!"

He sped to a halt in front of an elevator and its doors began to slid open as Knuckles said "The computer room is up ahead. You should be able to shut down the Death Egg's defensive system with that device Rotor gave us from there."

Sonic quickly pulled up the bottom of his glove and looked into it. Yep, that black device was still in there, and yes, it was very uncomfortable to care it like that. The elevator doors finally opened up completely and Sonic quickly ran into the metal lift before jumping up to an emergency exit hatch in the elevator's roof and cutting right through it. He then quickly ran across the top of the lift and jumped down the side of the shaft before landing on the bottom of said shaft. Sonic then quickly jumped up through a set of already open elevator doors and into what looked like a large room that was being used for chemical purification. He boosted forwards and through a line of three Egg Pawns that were just walking towards another elevator, said elevator forced Sonic to skid to a halt and to also pry the doors open so he could jump down the shaft again. Once at the bottom of the shaft Sonic jumped through another set of open doors, but this time he didn't land on the ground, instead he Homing Attacked into two Egg Pawns that were standing on a set of stairs.

Sonic boosted forwards and down a hallway when suddenly purple chemicals were dumped on top of his head. The weight of the liquid being dumped on him forced him to come to an immediate halt, sadly the only thing he could do was close his eyes, plug his nose, and close his mouth while also hoping that the chemicals weren't toxic. Once the chemical dump finally ended Sonic shook off any remaining liquids that clung to him, a smell of laundry detergent filling his nose, before looking up and seeing a series of holed hatches that might just be a pretty sweet short cut. Sonic quickly jumped up into the air and began to climb up through the series of hatches before reaching a room that was filled with various chemical purification devices, or at least that's what he thought they looked like. But the thing that caught his eye was an over flow drain in the center of the room, he quickly ran over to it and pulled its grate cover off before jumping down the pipe and rolling through it.

Sonic was then spat out the other end of the pipe and into a large circular room that's floor lead to a large hole in the center of it. Said hole also lead to a series of fans and other sharp objects that'd cut Sonic into more than just half. He quickly spun around in the air and Homing Attacked into an Egg Pawn that was standing on a catwalk that stretched from one of the room to the other. Suddenly he felt the area of the catwalk he was standing on shudder, which caused him to quickly jump off of that spot right before it opened up like a hatch and let chemicals that had been dumped out of a hole in the roof fall freely down towards the floor bellow. That hatch area of the catwalk closed again but Sonic could see that at certain spots in front of him and behind him there were other hatches just like the one he was standing on just a few moments before.

He waited for the right moment before quickly boosting forwards. He was able to just barely step off of the last hatch right as it opened up and let chemicals fall past it. As he ran he saw a large door standing in front of him, said door must've lead to the computer room he was looking for. Sadly there was a bridge in between him and that door, and as he ran across it sirens went off and the bridge began to lower itself. Sonic quickly jumped up into the air and was just barely able to grab onto the other end of the chain linked bridge which he would then climb up like it were a rock wall, at the same time Sonic thought about the fact he's never actually done a real rock wall before, sure he's climbed over rocks on Angel Island before but that wasn't a real rock wall. As he reached the top of the bridge he realized he'd spent far too long thinking about climbing rock walls than he should've, so as he pulled himself up and onto the floor above him he said into his earpiece "I found a way through to the computer room."

That large door slid open and let Sonic boost into a massive room filled with wires, pipes, and of course, a large wall covered in monitors that sat straight ahead of him. As he boosted forwards Knuckles said "All right! Now we can destroy the Death Egg."

Sonic nodded as he came to a stop in front of the large multi-monitor wall. He then walked over to the crescent shaped control panel that sat in front of him, and at the same time he pulled out that device Rotor had given to the Resistance a little bit ago. Sonic spent a moment searching around for a large enough port that the device would plug into, and once he did finally manage to plug the device into the control panel the center screen changed from an infinitely scrolling wall of text and code, to a black screen with a featureless white face that had pure yellow eyes, and cat like ears. Suddenly a voice came over that single screen's speakers "Hello. I am the Phage A.I."

The voice of the A.I. was smooth, hushed, and oddly feminine. All of that together kind of freaked Sonic out "Uh.. Hi, Phage. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog."

"Hello. Sonic."

The Hedgehog looked around the room awkwardly before saying "So.. What exactly do you do?"

"My main purpose is."

Suddenly the voice of Rotor played instead of Phage's "To mess up Eggman's computers."

But then Phage's voice returned as it said "And I must ask.. Do you want me to mess up this computer?"

Sonic nodded "Yeah, although. I was kinda hoping that you could also disable the Death Egg's defensive systems?"

"Affirmative."

Suddenly all of the other screens turned black, and Phage's icon disappeared, before it reappeared on every screen as a giant icon. Sonic backed away from the database as the booming voice of Phage came over all of the monitors "Undergoing complete destruction of the database."

All of the lights in the room then suddenly turned off and the only light that was left in there was the light that was coming off of the monitors Phage's icon was on. He continued to slowly back away as he said "So... I can go now.. Right?"

"Affirmative. I will be transported to Rotor's personal handheld computer once this is completed."

Sonic nodded before quickly boosting out of the room, and through the facility. As he ran he said into his earpiece "Death Egg's defense systems should be shutting down soon."

The voice of Knuckles said "Good, now get back to Beta Base in one piece."

Sonic chuckled "Come on Knux, I'm the one leaving pieces of things behind. Not being turned into pieces."

Knuckles sighed "And yet. You've been cornered more than once in your life."

Sonic also sighed "Coming back to base now.. Chuckles."

"See you- Wait.. No, wait. Sonic! What did you just-"

The Hedgehog took his earpiece out before laughing to himself, as he did he ran out of the Chemical Plant and towards the shore of the island where he would then use his speed to run across its water and back to South Island.

* * *

12:20 A.M. South Island, Hill Top Zone, Beta Base.

* * *

Blue sat silently on a chair outside of Tails' new workshop, the Hedgehog's feet couldn't reach the ground so they just dangled there in place. Suddenly Tails' communicator, which Tails had handed Blue and told to keep an eye on it until he came out of his workshop, began to sound off. Blue held it up to his ear and said into it "Heeellllooo?"

Suddenly the voice of Rouge said "The Death Egg's weapon systems are down! Now is your chance! Move!"

Blue quickly hopped off of the chair and ran over to the workshop's closed door. He pounded his fist on it as he yelled out "Tails! We gotta go!"

Suddenly the door slid open and Tails said "What's up? What's wrong?"

Blue handed Tails his communicator as he said "Nothing's wrong, technically. But, what is going on is the Death Egg's defenseless! We gotta move!"

Tails' eyes widened in shock before he quickly grabbed onto Blue and pulled him into the workshop. The actual room itself didn't look to different from the hanger back in Green Hill, except for the fact it was cleaner in there, but what did stand out to him was the large object in the center of the room that was covered by a white tarp. Tails came to a stop in front of the tarp covered object before quickly letting go of Blue and running over to the side of the object, as he grabbed onto the tarp he said "Behold!"

He then yanked the tarp off and revealed a large red rocket that had a black top, and yellow pointed fins on the bottom of it. Blue stared at the rocket silently before saying "What is it?"

Tails put his hands on his hips as he said "This, is the Tornado X-3. Or just, the Tornado Rocket. Which ever you prefer."

Blue approached the Tornado X-3 and said "Wait, three.. That means there's an X-2?"

Tails nodded "Sure there is, but right now, you need to get into the X-3 so we can send you up to the Death Egg."

He then pressed a button and a hatch in front of Blue opened up which led to a small compartment that had a small leather seat in it. Blue looked over to Tails and said "You want me to climb into this thing, and sit on a leather seat?"

Tails shrugged "You've gone through worse ways to get to the Death Egg. Like grabbing onto the side of a rocket as it breaks atmosphere, or jumping into the Death Egg as it breaks atmosphere."

Blue rolled his eyes "Fine I get your point."

He then climbed into the compartment and sat down on the seat. He looked over his shoulder and saw that his back was pointed towards the ground due to how he had to sit in the seat. Tails walked over to Blue and pressed a button in the compartment that created straps that quickly locked Blue into place, at the same time Tails said "Once you're up there you gotta hurry. You gotta destroy the Death Egg and cut off the power supply."

Blue chuckled "You're making it sound like a walk in the park. This is a Death Egg! Sure I've dealt with it before, but that doesn't mean it was a walk in the park."

Tails shook his head "Don't sweat it. You're gonna have this under control."

He backed away from the rocket and suddenly a hatch in the roof over the X-3 opened up and the rocket began to shudder as its engine began to turn on. The compartment Blue was in began to lower into the rocket and once it was in there completely the hatch closed and Blue was forced into darkness, right before the rocket blasted off of the ground and up through the hole that led out of the mountain and up into the air, a screen then appeared in front of Blue and it showed the outside of the rocket, specifically Blue could see that he was breaking atmosphere and heading right towards the massive Death Egg.


	22. Destroy the Death Egg

**I WANT TO TAKE A QUICK MOMENT TO SAY THAT I AM PLANING ON GOING BACK TO THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS OF THE STORY AND REWRITING THEM TO FIT WITH MY CURRENT WRITING STYLE.**

 **AND YES, SPIDERDOM. I ALSO DON'T LIKE THE DEATH EGG STAGE OR IRON FORTRESS. K' THAT'S ALL BYE.**

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12:24 A.M. Over The Planet, The Death Egg

* * *

The Tornado X-3 flew into one of the battle station's hangers and it landed at the far end of it before a hatch opened up and Blue jumped out of the rocket. Once he landed on the ground he sped off in his Drop Dash heading towards an automatic door. It slid open and Blue jumped up out of his Drop Dash and up onto his feet before he started to run forwards, when suddenly hatches in the walls on either side of him opened up and Egg Pawns stepped out from the rooms in the hatches. The robots aimed their cannon arms at Blue but the Hedgehog quickly jumped up into the air and curled up into his Spin Ball before crashing through the closest Pawn, once he came out the other side he Spin Dashed towards the next Pawn, before running up the side of a wall, jumping off of it as the last Pawn fired at him, and Spin Dashing through the last Pawn.

Once Blue came out of his Spin Ball he said into his earpiece "Hey, the defense system's still up! I thought we shut it down."

Tails hummed in thought before saying "They probably switched the base over to auxiliary power."

Blue shrugged before running forwards again and saying "Not to worry. I'm on the job, I'll find a way through!"

An automatic door in front of Blue opened up and he ran through it when suddenly he skid to a halt as he almost fell off of an edge and into a massive chasm. He quickly regained his balance before suddenly the spot he was standing on shifted up, two guard rails appeared on either side of him, and he was surrounded by a yellow energy ring. He was lifted up off of the ground before being carried off down into the chasm by that energy ring, he screamed out in confusion and fear as the ring carried him down into the chasm before suddenly he was pulled upwards and towards the the other side of the chasm where the ring then dropped him.

Blue quickly stood up and turned around to face the chasm. He was about to question why the Death Egg even had something like that when suddenly he heard the sound of something large opening up over to his left, and when he looked over to that side he saw a set of massive hanger doors slide open and let a giant space ship fly into the chasm, which wasn't actually a chasm, it was actually a massive docking station for giant ships like the one that had just parked in front of Blue. The Hedgehog then quickly spun back around and continued running forwards, he ran down a hallway and into a lift, and as the lift being to move the ground suddenly shuddered before revealing itself to actually be a treadmill.

Blue ran against the direction of the lift's moving floor when suddenly pulse-energy laser turrets sprout out of the walls of the lift's shaft. Blue quickly tucked and rolled underneath one of the blue energy spheres before standing back up and running against the pull of the floor again, only to see one of the turrets fire at him again. Blue quickly jumped over the energy ball and, due to the movement of the treadmill floor, once he landed he slipped and fell into his Spin Ball. Luckily that saved him from being hit by an energy sphere because one of the spheres narrowly flew over him before the lift finally reached the top of its shaft, and Blue unballed himself.

He quickly continued to run forwards when suddenly he started to slowly feel lighter, and lighter, and lighter, until he suddenly came off of the ground and fell up towards the ceiling. He picked himself up off of the now floor ceiling he said "Agh, this is messing with my head!"

Tails then said "Just stay calm and you'll figure out the way forward."

Blue sighed as he ran forwards "Wish I could smash the thing messing with gravity in here."

A set of doors slid open in front of him and he wasn't able to stop himself from running into an elevator shaft. He spun around in the air as he tired to avoid energy spheres that were being fired at him from energy turrets in the sides of the shaft, as soon as Blue landed on the bottom of/top of the shaft he ran over to the shaft doors he tried to pry them open but his muscles weren't strong enough to open the doors themselves. Suddenly the door slid open and Blue climbed up onto the ceiling/floor before running forwards again, he then realized that the room he ran into was a manufacturing plant for robots suddenly an Egg Pawn fell in front of Blue, he quickly curled up into a Spin Dash and cut through the robot before quickly jumping up to his feet, and tripping over a guard rail. He fell face first onto a treadmill and that made him realize that maybe he wasn't running across the ceiling of the Death Egg, maybe the Egg's just upside down, for some reason, he quickly lifted his head up and shook it, clearing his thoughts, before standing up.

The treadmill suddenly turned on and Blue began to run against the floor's pull. Suddenly an Egg Pawn fell in front of him and Blue quickly jumped up into the air before Drop Dashing towards it, he cut right through it before jumping up onto his feet and climbing up a machine meant to create Egg Pawns, but was now being used as a jungle gym for Blue. The Hedgehog then jumped off of the machine and up onto a pathway that was slightly higher than the top of the machine, he continued to run forwards when suddenly gravity returned to normal, or the Death Egg turned right side up again, he landed on the ground before returning to running forwards when suddenly his body stopped moving by itself, the ground underneath sank, and guard rails appeared next to him, all before another yellow energy ring appeared around him and carried him off somewhere else.

After about two to three seconds later and he was dropped inside of a lift by the ring. As he stood up the voice of Knuckles said "Pretty smooth. Don't get cocky and fall!"

Tails chuckled "Hey, it's a Sonic where talking about here!"

Blue furrowed his brow "Hey!"

But that only made Tails laugh. Blue sighed before the lift began to lower and once it reached its destination Blue ran out of the lift and towards a small chasm similar to the one he almost fell into when he first started this adventure of his in this Death Egg, only this chasm was a bit smaller than the first, and honestly Blue was expecting another one of those energy rings to appear around him but instead he almost fell over the edge. When suddenly a bridge made of blue energy appeared underneath him, Blue quickly ran across the bridge before it disappeared and once he reached the other side of the chasm he saw a set of doors sitting in front of him, he quickly ran through the doors and into a narrow hallway. He continued to run through it when suddenly Egg Pawns came out of hatches in the sides of the hall, he curled up into his Spin Dash and tore right through them before coming out into a giant circular room, he came out of his Spin Ball and stood up before looking at the center of the room.

Sitting right in the center of the room was a giant sphere with large metal rings orbiting it. The sphere was also metal like the rings, but it also had glowing purple markings all over it, if Blue had to guess, he'd guess that the sphere was the Death Egg's power core, with a grin on his face Blue sped off and quickly began to run up the side of the circular room's walls, steadily getting faster and faster each lap around the room he took, until finally he was just a blue blur on the side of the wall. He then ran up and onto the ceiling of the room and over to the part of it that sat over the power core before jumping off and cutting right through it, once he hit the ground underneath the power core Blue Spin Dash back up onto the pathway he was standing on before he started running along the rooms walls, once he did land he spun around and saw several explosions come out of the core randomly before the entire battle station shook, it was a very specific kind of shake that Blue knew all to well.

The voice of Knuckles then said "All right! The Death Egg is starting to crumble! Blue, get outta there before it blows."

Blue nodded "Don't have to tell me twice."

He then quickly spun back around and ran out of the room speeding off towards the hanger where the Tornado X-3 was still parked in. As he ran sirens went off all around him as the battle station continued to shake upon every explosion, all of it combined made Blue remember the first time he was on the Death Egg, how he had become so weak from escaping the planet's atmosphere that he had almost died at the hands of Silver Sonic and the Death Egg Robot, and how he would've died when he fell back down onto the planet if Tails hadn't have saved him. He was shaken out of his trance when he realized that the large ship that had docked itself in that giant chasm hadn't left yet, but it was about to, so in a mad rush of instinct Blue jumped up and grabbed onto the side of one of the ship's airlocks before the aircraft rocketed out of the Death Egg. Blue quickly sucked in a deep breath before the ship sped off and as it flew away from the battle station he saw three large explosions come out of it, before it finally imploded in a grand spectacle of light for everyone on the planet below to see.

That same explosion was also large enough to take tare the Egg Station in half, which also caused the orbital prison itself to explode in just the same fashion as the Death Egg. Blue then returned his attention to the airlock door he was grabbing onto, if he wanted to survive reentry he was going to need to get into the ship. So he quickly pressed a button that made the airlock slid open before flinging himself into the ship right before the door slid shut by itself, Blue coughed slightly as he breathed out, before breathing in, he then ran forwards heading towards the ship's bridge and once he reached it he saw ten Egg Pawns all turn around and face him, Blue grinned before popping his right hand's knuckles and saying "Who want's to throw down first?"

* * *

12:34 A.M. Surface of The Planet, West Side Island, Metropolis Zone, Eggman's Base In The City

* * *

While the Resistance celebrated their victory over Eggman, the Doctor grumbled to himself as he watched a holographic video of a camera feed of the Death Egg's explosion from the Egg Station that was being played by Cubot, before the camera went to static "Grr. Those Resistance pests and their clever little plots! They're like something on your shoe that you can't wipe off."

As he complained about the Resistance he stomped his right foot on the ground as if to emphasize his foot analogy. Orbot then lifted up to his master's eye level "It appears they have take our legs right out from under us. Quite impressive, really. Then again you haven't told us about any of your plans since you decided to create the Egg Station so what do I know?"

Cubot turned off his holographic projection and looked over to his much smarter counterpart "I don't have legs. Neither do you dude."

Orbot turned to face Cubot "Don't remind me. Dude!"

He then shot Cubot finger guns and Eggman grumbled to himself while the other two robots laughed at their dumb joke "And they wonder why I don't tell them my plans."

Suddenly Infinite walked into the room and Eggman turned around to face him. Eggman sighed before saying "Nine more hours before the plan is executed. Infinite, let's make a tactical retreat so that we can re-mobilize our forces"

Infinite lifted off of the ground and said "By ' _tactical retreat_ ' you mean to say ' _flee with our tails between our legs_ '.. I'm quite displeased about this, Doctor."

He expected Eggman to yell at him, but instead the Doctor started to laugh "He. Hehehe. Hahahah! Wowhohoho! I must've misspoke! When I said, let's, I meant ME. I am retreating with MY forces! You. You are going to finally find the Resistance's Beta Base, and force them to Alpha Base.. So I can destroy them."

Infinite rolled his eyes and shook his head "...Fine.. How would you like me to force the Resistance out of their base?"

Eggman grinned as he said "First, I must ask. Orbot, Cubot, is Project Elite finished?"

Orbot nodded "Sure is boss."

Infinite then said "What is Project Elite?"

Eggman looked over his shoulder and to Infinite "Our little ace in the hole that will be the unraveling of the Resistance."

Infinite clenched his fists "I am in no need of assistance! I am more than enough!"

Eggman rolled his eyes "You aren't going to be doing anything."

Infinite unclenched his fists and he lowered out of the air and back onto the ground "What do you mean?"

Eggman sighed as he rubbed his forehead "You're just going to be supervising the attack. Which means you're going to make sure the members of Project Elite stay on mission, and making sure Chaos doesn't break free from his illusion.. Which reminds me, what kind of illusion do you keep him trapped in."

Infinite didn't listen to the last part of what Eggman said, he was still stuck on the beginning "Supervise? Supervise?! SUPERVISE?! You want me to sit on the sidelines and.. _WATCH_! Others do a job I can do a thousand times better!?"

The Doctor nodded "Yes that is what I want you to do. Now answer my question."

Infinite clenched his fists again as he said through his clenched teeth "I keep Chaos under our control by making myself look like that Echidna.. Tikal. And by telling it to listen to you."

Eggman nodded "I thought as much.. Now, go and take my Egg Carrier and force the Resistance to their Alpha Base, and wait for my orders from there."

The Jackal continued to speak through his teeth as he said "FINE.. How do I find the Beta Base?"

Eggman began to turn around and face away from Infinite as he answered Infinite's question "The Carrier is already programmed to follow any pinpoints I've given it, so all you need to do is turn the Carrier on and let it do the rest of the work."

Infinite sighed as he realized he wasn't getting out of his supervision job so he unclenched his fists and teeth before saying "Alright.."

Eggman smiled "Finally! Get going and don't come back until I tell you to."

Infinite reluctantly nodded before spinning around and walking out of the room. He continued to walk through the base until he reached the hanger that the large red aircraft was stationed in, he made his way into the Egg Carrier and up to the ship's bridge before turning it on and feeling the ship shudder as it lifted up slightly. He heard the sound of the bridge's door sliding open and thunderous foot steps came into the room, Infinite glanced over his shoulder and at a robot with glowing red eyes, he grumbled to himself as he looked back out the bridge's front window. There was something familiar about that robot, but he honestly was still to angry over being forced to just watch over a battle he couldn't even partake in, he then suddenly heard the sound of strange foot steps coming towards him again, that wasn't from the red eyed robot, he looked over his shoulder again and at the improved Chaos.

It went from a water creature with smooth liquid skin-like-body. But it was now a creature made of crystals with a skin-like-body that was jagged and sharp, the skin-like-body was also colored very light sky blue, it also had bright jade green crystal eyes, and a light purple gemstone sat inside of its head which was once the very visible brain in its head. It was surprising to see something like the improved Chaos standing behind Infinite, although, maybe Chaos wasn't even improved because something like Chaos, a creature that obtained ultimate power only for it to loose it to a yellow stained version of Sonic, wouldn't ever be improved so maybe it was better to call it something other than the improved Chaos, Crystal Chaos had a nice ring to it.

Suddenly he heard the sound of the hanger's ceiling doors open up and the Egg Carrier lift out of the base. As the ship flew out of Metropolis and towards the location of the Beta Base Infinite could feel the eyes of Crystal Chaos and that robot staring at him, eventually Infinite was fed up with them and suddenly said "You two can leave now!"

He heard the sound of the other two leave the bridge and once the door slid shut Infinite let out a sigh of relief before raising his hands up and grabbing onto his mask. He took it off and his eyes winced as the bright unfiltered light of the Egg Carrier's bridge hit them, eventually he was able to push through the pain and his eyes returned to their un-winced state. He then walked over to a small compartment that Eggman had shown him, inside of that compartment were cleaning chemicals and devices, specifically he was looking for the bottle of blue colored chemicals that made any kind of glass resistance to fogging up, which was something he needed right now. The lens in his mask had fogged up during his angry and sadly one sided argument with Eggman, the way he found that out was because at least once or twice while yelling at Eggman his lens fogged up, he grabbed onto the bottle and walked over to the large chair made specifically for Eggman but the Doctor wasn't here right now so Infinite could sit in it freely.

He sat down on the chair that was made very wide to accommodate the fat Doctor, and because of the chair's width he was able to rest his back against the right arm of the chair, and to also rest his feet on the left arm of the chair. He silently sprayed his mask's lens with the chemicals as he prepared to take off his short neck scarf so he could use it to dry off the lens once he sprayed it, while he dried off his lens he stared out at the bridge's window, the sun should be rising up in another ten minutes or so. South Island and West Side Island were both special for a very important reason other than their luscious, and unique Zones, the two islands were also technically the first places in the world to receive morning light other than the uninhabited rocks that stick out of the Pafic Sea near the Zousian sub continent. Infinite turned his head and looked over to his mask as he took his scarf off of it and saw that the lens was shinning the very specific way that meant it was now almost impossible to fog up with any kind of breath.

He slid his mask back on before standing up and out of Eggman's chair, he walked over to the front of the bridge and stared out of its window again as he saw the Egg Carrier continue to get higher and higher into the air as it began to pass over what was once called the oil hills due to the fact Eggman's old oil plant nicknamed Oil Ocean, and because much like South Island, West Side was a mostly hill infested island. Of course except for the Hill Top mountains, which Infinite would be reaching in another twenty minutes, finally the Egg Carrier stopped elevating itself once it was over the clouds which would've concealed the ship approaching the Beta Base. Thinking about the mission he was given made him clench his fists in anger once again as he silently grumbled to himself, wishing he could be down there tearing open Resistance soldiers, especially that Newt girl and that red Wolf, he hated leaving jobs unfinished, and with those two alive that also meant that stupid Dog was still alive, and to make matters worse being forced to the sidelines meant he couldn't fight Shadow "But soon, I will get to finish what we've started.. Once I end this pitiful world in just nine long hours."

And with that Infinite unclenched his fists and crossed them behind his back as he continued to stare out the bridge's window, all the while that red eyed robot waited along side the rest of Project Elite and Crystal Chaos for their moment to attack the Resistance.


	23. Fall of Beta Base

**THIS STORY HAS BECOME MY MOST VIEWED WITH FOUR THOUSAND VIEWS. AIN'T THAT COOL?**

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2:46 A.M. Hill Top Zone, Beta Base, the Medical Bay.

* * *

Sally paced back and forth in front of the med bay's door, her teeth gnawing on the side of her first finger as she did. Quite awhile ago Sally got the news that Bunnie had arrived at the base and was taken into the med bay, but Sally hasn't even seen her yet so she doesn't know why Bunnie had been taken in there. She continued to pace back and forth until finally the door slid open and Vanilla walked out of the room, Sally quickly spun around and faced the mother Rabbit "Is she okay?"

Vanilla nodded "She is very much alive, and conscious."

Sally then said "But is she well?"

Vanilla sighed "I honestly don't know how to describe her condition.. The best I can do is show you."

She then led Sally into the med bay, which had a large curtained off area in the back of it. Vanilla then stopped Sally and said to her "What you're about to see.. May shock you.. Just.. Keep an open mind."

Sally nodded in confusion before Vanilla walked over to the curtain and slid it open, revealing the Roboticized Bunnie Rabbough sitting on a medical grade bed. Sally ran over to her friend and yelled out "Bunnie?! What happened to you!?"

The robo-Rabbit sighed "What yah see is what yah get. Ah've been Roboticized by Egghead."

Sally cupped her hand around Bunnie's metal cheek "Why are you acting so calm?! You're not organic anymore!"

Bunnie's mechanical lips turned into a grin before she took Sally's hand off of her cheek "Ah either overreact and yell about it. Or ah accept it and move on.. Although ah haven't accepted it completely yet, but ah'm working on it."

Sally sighed as she said "I'd rather have you overreact that act as if everything's normal."

Bunnie chuckled "Nothing's normal darling! Ah'm a robot! Ah got jets in my heels! Ah'm not acting like everything's normal, but ah am acting like ah can't change things."

Sally stared at Bunnie slightly confused "Wait.. Jet's in your heels?"

Bunnie nodded "Yeah, flew here with em two!"

Suddenly, Sally realized something "Wait, where's Nicole?"

Just then Vanilla cleared her throat and Sally spun around to see Vanilla holding a laptop that suddenly said "Hi."

In Nicole's voice. Sally ran over to Vanilla and the laptop and said "Nicole?! What happened?!"

The digital-Lynx sighed and said "Same thing as Bunnie, only Rookie couldn't get me back inside of my body in time.. Who knows where that thing is now."

Sally put her hands on the sides of her head "Both of my best friends.. Are now non-organic beings.. This is bad."

Suddenly Nicole blurted out "Hey! Check this out!"

Sally looked back over to the laptop's screen, and at the same time the green colored image of Nicole's face appeared. Although it wasn't a perfect copy, certain spots along the sides of her head weren't properly generated so those bits turned into pixels that hovered close to her head. Nicole then said "I've figured out how to create my own digital images!"

Sally sighed "That's.. Nice."

Nicole also sighed "Don't worry Sal, everything's gonna be okay."

Sally nodded "Yeah, everything's gonna be okay."

Just then everyone in the med bay could hear the sound of its door sliding open. And when Sally stepped out from in front of Vanilla and looked over to the door she saw, Antoine standing there, his right eye closed, and using his seethed sword as a crutch "Bonjour."

Sally ran over to Antoine and Bunnie tried to get off of the bed she was sitting on. Once Sally reached Antoine she said "You're awake!"

Antoine nodded "Indeed I am.. Although, I have felt better."

Vanilla suddenly said "Don't worry, I have some burn cream some where in here."

Antoine looked over to Vanilla and gave her a smile "Zhank you."

Vanilla nodded before setting laptop Nicole down and walking off to find that burn cream. Sally helped walk Antoine over to Nicole and Bunnie, while she did Bunnie said "Would you look at this. The Special Forces back together at last."

Nicole chuckled "Yeah.. Although I would like to see you guys in person."

Antoine looked over to Nicole's screen and said "So long as you are fine, zhere is nothing wrong with how you are."

Nicole's digital face smiled "Thank you Antoine."

The injured Coyote grinned and nodded before the med bay's door slid open again suddenly, and when Sally looked over to the door she saw Shadow standing in it "Knuckles wants to talk to you."

He then walked away and Sally hesitantly followed. She didn't want to just leave her friends behind, especially when they were in those kind of states, but duty was calling and she had to answer. Once she reached the Briefing Room she saw Knuckles, Amy, the Chaotix, Rouge, and Shadow all standing around the room's table, as Sally entered the room Knuckles said "I've heard about what's happened to your friends.. I'm sorry."

Sally sighed "It's fine.. What did you want to see me for?"

Knuckles grinned slightly "I wanted to show you this."

Suddenly a small holographic projector came out of the roof over the middle of the table and it suddenly displayed the video of the Death Egg exploding. Sally stared at it in disbelief "H- He actually did it.. Blue did it, the Death Egg's down!"

Vector also smiled "I know right? This is the biggest win we've gotten since we saved Sonic!"

Knuckles nodded "And this means we can finally take the fight to Eggman's capital now that the Phantom Ruby's powerless."

Shadow, who was actually standing in the corner of the room and had his arms crossed over his chest, suddenly said "Even without a Phantom Ruby, Infinite is still a danger to us."

Knuckles shrugged "Yeah, to one or two people maybe. But we've got quintuple that!"

Amy silently said "That's not the exact amount of soldiers we have.. But what ever you say."

Knuckles was about to say something when suddenly a soldier ran into the room and quickly yelled out "The base's sensors have picked something up!"

Amy looked over to the soldier "What kind of something is it?"

"I- It's a ship, and its heading right for us!"

Knuckles looked over to the soldier as well "Don't panic, with any luck Eggman's just trying to sweep the area again. He shouldn't know where this base is.. We just got to lay low and wait for it to pass."

Suddenly, as if the universe were mocking him, the sound of a loud explosion could be heard inside of the Briefing Room, and the base shook when it happened. Knuckles quickly turned the holographic projector back on and it showed the holographic image of the outside of the base. And descending out of the clouds was the Egg Carrier, just then the image showed one of the ship's cannons firing at the base again. At the same time another explosion was heard in the room and the base shook again.

* * *

12:48 A.M. Outside Of the Beta Base, the Egg Carrier.

* * *

Infinite stared out of the ship's window as one of its cannon turrets fired at the side of the mountain. The fact he was watching an automated system fire at the mountain without any impute from Infinite angered him almost as much as being forced to supervise Project Elite and Crystal Chaos's mission, suddenly the built in radio on the ship's control panel turned on and the voice of Eggman came through it "Infinite, have you arrived at the Beta Base?"

Infinite looked over to the radio "Yes, I have."

"Good, good. Now then, continue to not do nothing, and continue to wait for me to tell you what to do next. While you do wait, I am going to cripple the base's communication systems and defenses."

Infinite clenched his fists "Yes.. Sir."

The radio turned off and Infinite growled at it before the Egg Carrier's turrets all turned on and aimed at the mountain. They then simultaneously fired at the side of the mountain, explosions peppered the magma rock covered structure and smoke came off of the explosions as well. Infinite sighed as he shook his head sadly "All of this destruction accomplished by over fifty turrets.. While I can do this myself."

He returned to watching the mountain as it was bombarded by the Egg Carrier's turrets viciously.

* * *

Inside Of the Beta Base.

* * *

The lights of the Briefing Room flickered as the Resistance all heard the sound of their once secret base get hit by continual fire. The base itself shook constantly which caused Knuckles to grip the side of the table, Amy staggered around, and the rest of the people in the room tried their hardest to stay upright by grabbing onto anything near them, or keeping themselves steady. Suddenly there was a break in the bombardment and Knuckles used that moment to turn on the communications device that was sitting on the table in front of him. Once the device was on he tuned it to a specific frequency before saying into it "Sonic where are you?"

There was a moment of static before the voice of Sonic said "I- I'm here, sorry. Ran into some trouble near Emerald Hill, be there real soon!"

Knuckles shook his head "Soon better be now. Eggman's found the base!"

"What?! How?! Scratch that. I'm on my way, be there as soon as I can!"

The base was then hit by another shot from the ship and Knuckles said "Hurry!"

Sonic then turned off his communicator and Knuckles quickly tuned it to a different frequency "Blue? Blue are you there?"

"Y- Yeah! I'm here!"

Knuckles sighed "Where are you?"

"Kinda stuck above the planet. Don't know how to fly this thing."

Amy suddenly said "Wait, you're flying something?"

"Yeah. Couldn't get to the X-3 in time, so I had to hop onto a shuttle already stationed in the Death Egg.. You guys sound stressed what's up?"

Vector suddenly yelled from across the room "The base is under attack!"

"Great.. Alright I'm on my wa-"

Suddenly there was a much large explosion that sounded as if it came from both outside the base, and inside. The lights flickered again as the base shook, and at the same time the communication device went out, Charmy was the only one in the room who wasn't being affected by the shacking thanks to his wings, but he was aware of what was going on so when the device went out he yelled "What happened?!"

Knuckles tried his best to turn it back on but each time he did nothing happened "..Our communication network is down."

There was another explosion, this time at the entrance of the base, and Espio said "We can't stay here. We have to retreat."

Knuckles slammed his fist against the table in anger "..Alright. Come on follow me."

He then quickly ran out of the room and everyone else followed him. But before Amy left the room she pressed a button on the side of the wall that activated the emergency evacuation system. While everyone ran after Knuckles the sound of gun fire could be heard from inside of the base as robots began to storm their way in, as they ran down another hallway Rookie and Newt ran out of their sleeping quarters and joined the ground. Rookie looked over to Sally "What's going on?!"

Just then there was an explosion in a hallway that was to their right up ahead, and that same explosion sent Tangle flying into the wall to their left. She groaned as she stood up and while she did over fifty Egg Pawns stomped their way down the hall, Newt stared at them in complete shock "There's to many of them."

Knuckles stepped forwards and so did Amy, the two of them then said in unison "No. There isn't."

Suddenly Knuckles leaped forwards and Amy made a large pink and yellow hammer appear in her hands. Knuckles punched through an entire line of the Pawns while Amy jumped up into the air and slammed her hammer against the ground causing a pink shock wave to come off of it, that shock wave sent Pawns flying back and when they eventually exploded there wasn't a regular boom sound, instead there was something that sounded like "piko" that came out of them. Knuckles quickly glanced over his should as he pulled his spiked fist out of a robot "Get moving!"

The rest of the Resistance quickly ran through the chaos of the other two's battle, as they ran more and more of the Resistance would join the group until it was practically the size of a normal street parade. The entire Special Forces was there, Bunnie was carrying Antoine, who was carrying Nicole, and Rotor had join in as well. Eventually they started to run towards a door and Vector didn't wait for it to open, instead he headbutted the door clean off of the wall before ushering everyone into the room, he quickly looked back down the hall and saw Amy running towards them, while Knuckles glided along side her, once the two reached the room and entered it Vector picked up the door and slammed it back into place. Knuckles quickly ran over to a medium sized wooden crate in the back of the room that looked more like an over sized supply closet than anything else.

Rookie was shacking like leaf as he said "What are we going to do?!"

Knuckles reached the crate and looked over his shoulder and at Rookie "We're retreating to Alpha Base."

He then punched the crate and used the hole he had created to rip it apart, revealing a strange pedestal with a crystal red ball in the center of it, the pedestal was also large enough for even Vector to stand on with booth of his feet. Knuckles placed his hand on top of the crystal and it suddenly began to glow before Knuckles said "Everyone step up onto here, one at a time."

Charmy quickly flew over to the pedestal and landed on top of the crystal ball. It began to glow brighter and brighter while Charmy was levitated off of the ball, until suddenly he spun around in midair and a beam of red light shot out of the crystal ball causing Charmy to disappear instantly. Next up was Bunnie carrying Antoine, who was still carrying Nicole, while the same thing that happened to Charmy happened to those three Rookie said to Amy "What is that thing?"

Before she answered the other three also disappeared, once Rotor climbed up onto the pedestal Amy answered "It doesn't have an actual name, but Knuckles calls it the Echidna Teleporter."

Rookie was about to ask another question when suddenly Knuckles came up behind him and started to usher him over to the Teleporter. Rookie struggled to keep his balance on the stone pedestal while the crystal ball began to glow, Rookie was lifted off of the top of the pedestal, he slowly spun around in midair, and in an instant he disappeared in a bright flash of red light.

* * *

12:51 A.M. Outside of Emerald Hill Zone.

* * *

Sonic Homing Attacked into an Egg Pawn before quickly running over to a large rock, he quickly hid behind it as Eggman's soldiers fired at the boulder. Normally Sonic would easily take down the robots, but this time they were being supported by a large, steel, Hover Tank and sadly Sonic was having a bit of trouble taking that thing down. He quickly turned on his earpiece and spoke into it "Remember when I said I ran into trouble, well, that trouble's still here. And its still keeping me pinned down, but I promise I'll be there soon!"

There wasn't any kind of response "Hello? Anyone?"

Still nothing "This isn't good."

He turned off his earpiece and at the same time he heard the Hover Tank begin to come towards Sonic and the boulder. He quickly climbed up the side of the boulder and ran up to the top of it before jumping off of it and over the tank, once he landed on the ground behind the tank he ran forwards and boosted through a group of Egg Pawns in front of him. The tank aimed its large cannon at Sonic and it fired at him, Sonic quickly jumped over the shot, landed back down on the ground, and boosted towards the tank, he cut right through the bottom of it which was able to disable the tank's hover jets so it dropped down onto the ground crippling its ability to move.

Which was something Sonic was able to take advantage of. He jumped up onto the tank and up to the entrance hatch before pulling it open and jumping down into the tank, once inside of it he took out the robots controlling the tank and destroyed the tank's controls. He quickly jumped out of the tank and onto the ground before quickly turning his earpiece back on "Blue, you read me?"

"Yeah, I do. But before you say anything, can you get a message to the Resistance?"

Sonic began to run forwards as he sighed and said "No I can't. Seems like you can't either."

"This is bad."

Sonic nodded "Yeah it is... Alright listen, I've got a plan, and the first thing I need you to do is tell me where you are."

"I'm in a giant shuttle over the earth right now, like not in space but over the ground."

Sonic grinned "Perfect, head into the closest airlock and wait for me there, got it?"

"Yeah.. I guess."

Sonic then turned off his earpiece and boosted forwards, he then quickly drifted around and boosted towards the ocean. He ran across the face of the water and he continued to run across the water and towards a large peninsula near the United Federations mainland, called the Mystic Ruins. He sped across the ground of the Ruins and towards a large hill near the shore, he climbed up its stone steps and towards a large wood shack in front of a dirt runway, Sonic skid to a halt in front of the wooden shack and opened its door before running into its interior. Once inside he ran over to a workbench in the back of the shack and picked up a remote, he pressed a blue button and a hatch in the middle of the shack's ground opened up and blue bi-plane with yellow stripes, and red painted wing tips. He quickly ran over to the Tornado X-2 and jumped into its pilot seat before turning it on and pressing a button that opened up the large metal door in front of him and the plane.

* * *

12:52 A.M. Over the Northern Sea, Cargo Freighter B-23.

* * *

Blue ran into the ship's airlock just like his much older inter-dimensional counterpart told him to. Once he stood in front of the large airlock doors he felt the ship subtly being to turn as it continued to spin around, while Blue knew how to pilot a plane, he didn't know how to pilot a space ship and the best he was able to do was make it spin in circles. His plan before Sonic had contacted him was to just wait for the freighter to run out of fuel and crash into the ocean below, and while it was crashing he would jump out and land in the ocean safely, as for what he would do after, he wasn't sure yet, so maybe Sonic contacting him was a good plan after all.

Suddenly the voice of Sonic came over the earpiece "You in the airlock?"

Blue nodded "Yeah I am."

"Great, open it and jump out."

Blue nodded again and said "You got- WHAT?!"

"Come on man, I'm you. Why don't you trust me?"

Blue sighed before pressing a that made the airlock's doors slide open "I really don't want to die because I told myself to jump out of a space ship."

He then sped forwards and jumped out of the airlock. He fell through the air and towards the water bellow, when suddenly he could hear the sound of the ship's fuel run out and its engines turn off, he also heard the sound of a jet engine getting closer to him before he suddenly landed on something, but he couldn't quite see what it was because he closed his eyes the second he felt himself touch it. Once he did open his eyes again he saw that he was lying on top of a blue wing, he stood up and turned around, Sonic looked up to his inter-dimensional counterpart and grinned slightly before Blue said "What is this thing?"

Sonic made the plane turn around and begin flying off towards West Side "This is the Tornado X-2, and we're gonna use it to find the Resistance and save them."

Blue nodded as the plane continued to fly towards West Side, and Hill Top Zone.


	24. Assault On Alpha Base Pt1

12:51 A.M. West Side Island, Hill Top Zone, The Egg Carrier.

* * *

Suddenly the built in radio sounded off again "Infinite! I have come up with a theory that I wish to prove, what I need you to do is fly my ship up and away from the mountain so that I can."

Infinite rolled his eyes before grabbing hold of the ship's controls and lifting the Carrier away from the mountain before the turrets automatically aimed at the side of the mountain and they all fired at it in unison. The shots eventually broke through the side of the mountain and they began to hit the metal walls of the base, a minute later and the turrets broke through the walls, once they did the voice of Eggman yelled out "When I give you the word, press this button."

A button on the control console in front of Infinite began to glow and he said "Alright."

Suddenly a lucky shot hit something in the room in the base, and a red light began to glow brightly in the smoke of fire and Eggman quickly yelled out "PRESS THE BUTTON!"

Infinite did as he was commanded right before there was a massive, red colored, energy based, explosion that took out half of the mountain and made the Egg Carrier lurch back slightly due to the shock wave. Infinite quickly regained his balance and said "What was that?"

The voice of Eggman huffed "Just as I thought. Infinite fly a little higher into the air and tell me what you see."

Infinite made the Egg Carrier lift higher up into the air, and once he stopped a holographic Heads Up Display appeared over the window he was staring through. The HUD showed him a dot out in the distance, specifically the dot was centered on a distant cloud bank, and suddenly a holo-panel appeared next to him, it showed him the energy explosion, and it also showed him that the explosion was made up of exclusively Chaos Energy at 98%. He then looked back over to that dot and saw that it said that there was a corresponding Chaos Energy based explosion in the cloud bank, it shared the same kind of energy levels as well. Not only that but a different dot appeared and it showed that something with 110% Chaos Energy was also in the cloud bank.

Infinite finally said "And this means?"

Eggman chuckled "It means we know where Alpha Base is.. Go to it, send out Project Elite, or as they are actually known. The Egg Elite Force, and the improved Chaos so that they can crush the Resistance."

Infinite nodded as he made the Egg Carrier fly towards Alpha Base, as he did Eggman said "Oh, and Infinite, I want that ship back in one piece."

The Jackal sighed as he said "Yes, sir."

The radio then finally turned off and Infinite returned to blankly staring out of the bridge's now HUD-less window.

* * *

12:52 A.M. Alpha Base, Outpost 5.

* * *

Rookie watched as Knuckles, who was the last person they were waiting for, stepped down off of the Echidna Teleporter and into the wooden walled, metal roofed, shack. Once he did the crystal ball began to glow strangely, he quickly jumped away from the Teleporter right before cracks appeared on the crystal ball, before it suddenly exploded and blasted everyone that was near it back. Rookie was sent flying towards the wooden door and he broke right through it due to it being brittle and slightly warped, the blast didn't send him far though, so he landed on the ground and rolled across it before finally coming to a stop and looking up at the sky. He could see that all around him there were tall trees so him and the Resistance were in some kind of forest, not only that but the forest had lush, tall, and bright green grass.

As Rookie picked himself up off of the ground he heard Newt yell over to him "Are you okay?!"

Rookie nodded "Y- Yeah, I'm good."

But just then he heard the sound of the shard in his right palm go off. He quickly buried his hand in his chest fur as Newt, Espio, and Knuckles ran over to him. Rookie took that moment to take a better look at his surroundings, which allowed him to see that there were large mushrooms all over the place. Right as the other three reached him Rookie asked "Where are we? And what happened?"

Knuckles grinned slightly as he said "Where we are, is Alpha Base, which is also known as Angel Island. And that shack's Outpost 5, and it, along with us, are in Mushroom Hill Zone."

Rookie could feel the shard return to normal so he took his hand out of chest fur and said "And, about what happened?"

Knuckles chuckled for a second "Oh right sorry. It's just been too long since I've been home, anyways. What must've happened to the Teleport was that Eggman was able to destroy Beta Base's one causing a chain reaction."

Rookie nodded "Alright... And are we safe here?"

Knuckles sighed "I hope so."

Just then drone planes flew over head and dropped bombs into the forest. Knuckles quickly grabbed onto Rookie and pulled him out of the way of a falling bomb before Espio quickly kicked it back up into the air where it exploded rather harmlessly, only damaging the sides of trees and taking out one of the planes. Newt glared at the planes as they circled back around and flew over head "We were tracked here."

Knuckles clenched his fists before yelling over to the people still in the shack "Come one! We got to keep moving!"

Everyone quickly ran out of the outpost and over to Knuckles before the entire group began to make their way through Mushroom Hill Zone. Drone planes still flew over head and dropped bombs all around them, all the while new planes flew by and began to drop Egg Pawns and the beetle shaped Egg Tanks. Knuckles looked over his shoulder and to Rookie "Cover our backs!"

He nodded before quickly spinning around, coming to a stop, pulling out his Wispon, and firing at Egg Pawns that were chasing after them. Once he finished firing he could see up in the sky the front of the Egg Carrier begin to poke out of a massive cloud bank that surrounded the entire island. Rookie quickly spun back around and caught back up with the Resistance when suddenly a quick moving, red colored, and large, jet plane flew over head and dropped a Hover Tank in front of them, blocking their path. The jet itself was so fast no one could tell what it actually looked like, but they were also caught up with staring down the steel body of the Hover Tank in front of them so they didn't have time to truly figure it out.

The tank aimed its barrel at them and it was about to fire when suddenly there was a bright flash of cyan light in between the Resistance and the tank. At the same time the tank was covered in a cyan aura, once Rookie's eyes were able to recover from the sudden burst of light he saw Silver hovering over head, completely covered in his cyan aura. Silver quickly thrust his hand out and sent the Hover tank flying backwards and into the trunk of a tree, once it collided with the hardy wood the tank exploded, Silver then set down on the ground before clenching his fists and causing another bright flash of cyan light to appear next to the Resistance, and out of that flash came the other members of the Resistance that were left behind in the base.

Knuckles ran over to Silver and gave the white Hedgehog a pat on the back "Good job man!"

Silver smiled at Knuckles "Th- Thanks.. Those are the only other people I could find that weren't already dead."

Suddenly five drone planes flew over head and dropped bombs, but Silver quickly caught them with his telekinesis and threw them away. Nicole suddenly spoke up "We still need to keep running!"

Knuckles nodded before everyone returned to running, some of them were more prepared then others. Vanilla was having a hard time running in her medical scrubs so Vector quickly scooped her up and began to carry her while he ran. Rookie glanced over his shoulder and back at the Egg Carrier, which was now poking half of itself out of the cloud bank, and saw its bottom hanger doors open up, before eight tiny figures that he could barely make out flew out of the bottom of the ship, heading straight towards the surface of Angel Island, at the same time he saw a massive jagged ball jump out of the ship behind the figures as well. Even though he knew better, Rookie hoped that they weren't chasing after him and the Resistance.

* * *

12:54 A.M. Over the Pafic Sea, Near Angel Island.

* * *

Blue had his hands on his hips as he said "Soon, seriously what's our plan? I mean the Resistance wasn't at Hill Top, Beta Base was destroyed, and we don't know where they are."

Sonic shook his head "No, I got an idea where they might be."

He then pointed at a large cloud bank dead ahead, Blue looked over to it, and in a split second he saw the shores of Angel Island through a hole in the clouds before it disappeared again after being recovered in cloud. But one other thing he saw was the Egg Carrier slowly flying towards and over Angel Island, which made him say "Think I know what took down Beta Base."

Sonic sighed and shook his head "It was bad enough seeing the Death Egg again. But now Egghead brings back the Egg Carrier. Its like he wants to see that thing get destroyed."

Blue laughed slightly "You're telling me! Dude brought back the Flying Batter in my world, and this Egg Carrier sounds like a supped up version of the Batter so I can only assume it crumbles as easily as it as well."

Sonic also laughed slightly "You're not far off."

He then changed the Tornado X-2's path of flight and made it begin to fly towards the Egg Carrier, once he did Sonic said to Blue "Hold tight."

Suddenly Sonic pressed a button that caused a metal arm to come out of the side of the X-2 and to also grab onto Blue's waist. It lifted him up into the air while the plane itself began to change from a bi-plane, to a jet plane, with its wings spread out into an X shape. Blue was then set down on the back of the plane as a control panel rose out of the X-2 and Blue grabbed onto it. The inter-dimensional Hedgehog gawked at the plane before saying "What did you just do?"

Sonic chuckled "Say hello to the Tornado X-2 Battle Mode! Now let's show Eggman that no matter where it may be, the Egg Carrier always falls to my plane!"

Just then the X-2 zoomed forwards heading straight towards the Carrier. As they got closer to it turrets came out of the side of the Carrier and they aimed at the plane. While they fired Sonic made the plane zig and zag through the air dodging the in coming rounds, as he did Sonic said to Blue "Show em what you're made of!"

Blue nodded before Sonic flew towards the closest turret and Blue used the control panel to fire at the turret. The continual fire created two holes to appear in the turret so Blue quickly pressed a button on the control panel's touch screen that made two small rockets to fire out of the X-2 and at the holes in the turret. They went right in and the turret exploded, Sonic quickly made the plane turn away from the explosion so they weren't engulfed by it, he then had the plane turn around and being to fly towards another turret.

At the same time drone planes, Buzz Bombers, and Nebulas came out of the bottom of the Egg Carrier and began to attack the Tornado X-2. The plane dodged and weaved in between fire and Blue yelled out "If we want to take the Carrier down we're gonna have to deal with Egghead's flying robots!"

Sonic nodded as he continued to pilot the plane through chaos "Yeah, you're right.. You think you can fly this thing?"

Blue nodded "Yeah why?"

Sonic then pressed a button that made Blue's control panel to lower back into the plane before Sonic stood up. Him and Blue then traded places before Sonic said "Fly me up to the top of the Egg Carrier and I'll drop down onto it!"

Blue nodded again before he flew the X-2 up to the top of the Carrier, dodging flying robots as he did. Once the plane was above the top of the Carrier Sonic jumped off and landed on the ship bellow him. He watched as Blue made the X-2 turn around and fly away from Sonic and the top of the Carrier, Sonic then ran forwards heading towards a hatch that would lead him into the interior of ship, when suddenly small turrets came out of the ground in front of him. Sonic quickly curled up into a Spin Dash and cut right through the turrets before they could do anything, once he stood up he pulled open the hatch and jumped down into the ship and onto a cat walk that was overlooking a large hanger.

Sonic quickly ran forwards as Egg Pawns in the hanger took notice of him, they aimed their blasters at him and began to fire. But Sonic was too quick for them so their shots all messed him. He then quickly grabbed onto the guard rails of the catwalk and used it as leverage to jump off of it and down into the hanger, the Pawns aimed at him again but Sonic quickly boosted forwards and crashed through half of them. He came to a stop and quickly jumped up into the air and Homing Attacked into the closest Pawn, he then Attacked into the next Pawn, then the next, then the next, before he finally took out the last robot. When he landed back on the ground he could hear the sound of one of the larger turrets on the outside of the Carrier explode "Good going Blue!"

He then spun around and ran towards a hallway and quickly ran down it. He could see various robots step into the hall in front of him trying to block his path, but Sonic quickly boosted forwards and ran right through them before entering a large junction like room with multiple hallways all connecting to this one room. He came to a stop in the center of the room and looked around in confusion as he stared up to the top of the room, which was three stories tall, he had no clue where to go, or what he was supposed to do now that he was in there. When suddenly he heard a strange voice yell at him from the top level of the room "You! I have unfinished business with you!"

Suddenly a shiny silver colored robot jumped off of the top level and landed in front of Sonic. Once it did he saw that the robot was actually some kind of strange Shadow Android, with shiny silver metal instead of black fur, its eyes were glowing bright red, the red streaks on top of its head where the real Shadow's were glowed neon red, where the real Shadow's Inhibitor Rings were there were also yellow rings on the Android, but the Android's rings glowed bright neon yellow, the rings on his ankles also glowed bright yellow. Sonic glared at the Android "You're still up and running?"

It clenched its fists "No. You destroyed my first body, but now as you can see, I'm in a new body."

The Android's voice was metallic, robotic, and hallow while some how still being like the actual Shadow's voice as well. That all together creeped Sonic out more than Phage's voice, but the blue Hedgehog stood his ground "So, what was that about unfinished business?"

The Shadow Android stepped forwards "You and that fake Shadow in Green Hill City destroyed my body before I could fight either of you! Now, I vow to take you down, and to kill the fake Shadow!"

Sonic groaned "Great.. You've snapped just like Neo did. Eh, don't worry. You'll be out of your misery soon."

The Shadow Android huffed "It is you, how will be put out of your misery."

"Dude that doesn't even make sense."

The Android quickly lunged at Sonic, its fist reared back prepared to punch him. But Sonic quickly jumped out of the way and kicked the Android in the side of its head, which sent it flying half way across the room. It quickly recovered and got up off of the ground before jumping up into the air and yelling out "Chaos Spear!"

It then thrust its right hand out and a jagged, electric like, spear launched out of it. Sonic quickly jumped out of the way of the spear, and as it passed him he grabbed onto it, spun around, and threw it right back at the Android. It fell onto the ground and Sonic quickly ran over to it before jumping up into the air and Homing Attacking into the ground, Sonic attempted to do that very same thing again but the Android quickly kicked Sonic away with its foot before finally standing back up again. Sonic unballed himself and skid across the ground in a crouched position, he glared at the Android as it also got down into a crouch, they silently sized each other up, inspecting one another thoroughly.

Suddenly they both jumped up into the air and they both Homing Attacked towards each other. Due to the fact that, even though it wasn't even the real Shadow, the two were relatively fast enough that they evaded each other, so instead they spun around in midair desperately trying to Homing Attack which instead started to create a small wind vortex in between the two of them. Finally they both closed in on each other before they both Homing Attacked into each other and that blasted them away from each other as well, Sonic hit the ground and quickly rolled onto his feet and skid across it, while the Shadow Android tumbled across the ground and came to a stop before it picked itself up off of the ground.

Sonic suddenly boosted towards the Android but it jumped out of the way of him and began to chase after the Hedgehog and down a hallway. While they ran the voice of Blue came over Sonic's earpiece "Sonic! The Resistance fleet has arrived and they're helping me take this ship's defenses down!"

Sonic looked over to his left and at the wall which was covered in windows, and he saw fifteen large ships flying towards the Egg Carrier. From what little time he'd spent in Beta Base he had learned that the Resistance's fleet of ships were kept hidden from Eggman, and judging by the way they were flying towards the ship, they must've hidden them in the Death Egg's old launch base on Angel Island. He was taken out of his thoughts by the sound of the Shadow Android teleporting in front of him, he tried to come to a stop but before he could the Android spun around in the air and kicked Sonic through a door and into another room. Said room was just as large as the hanger, but not as wide, and sitting in the center of the room was a large circular metal ball that was held in midair by large metal beams that stuck out of it as if it were in a web, the ball itself also had various glowing blue designs all over it, and the reason why they glowed was because it was filled with a blue energy that glowed brightly, this must've been the Egg Carrier's energy core.

Sonic tried to jump off of the catwalk he was on but the Shadow Android suddenly slammed into his back and made him fall over the guard rail in front of him, and down onto the ground below. The Android landed in front of Sonic as the blue Hedgehog picked himself up off of the ground, at the same time he glared at the robot "You may not be as strong as Shadow, but you are definitely just as annoying as him."

The Android also glared at Sonic, but it simply huffed at him before jumping up into the air and yelling out "Chaos Spear!"

Hundreds of yellow energy spears appeared around the robot and they all fired at Sonic. He dodged the spears and began to run towards the Android as he did, he slid underneath one of them before jumping up into the air and Homing Attacking into the Shadow Android. The robot fell onto its back while Sonic landed on his feet, it picked itself up off of the ground as Sonic boosted towards it, the Shadow Android clenched its fists as Sonic ran towards him, it then spoke through its robotic clench teeth "Chaos Bla-"

Sonic then quickly spun around and used his momentum to kick the robot in its head and sent it flying up to the energy core above. The Shadow Android's body twitched as it muttered out "Ch- Ch- Chaos! B- B- Bl- BLAST!"

Its body began to glow bright red and Sonic grinned slightly as it suddenly exploded, damaging the core greatly in the process. The Shadow Android then fell onto the ground and Sonic walked over to it, he stared down at the robot before picking his leg up off of the ground and quickly crushing the robot's head. He took his foot out of the robot and brushed off his hands "That's done."

He then heard the sound of a piece of metal fall off of the energy core and onto the ground, he looked up to it as cracks formed all over it and blue light began to pour through those cracks. Sonic quickly spun around and began to run out of the room while saying into his earpiece "Blue! I'm gonna need you to make a pass around the underside of the ship!"

"You got it, be there soon!"

Sonic nodded before boosting forwards and through a hall. He then entered into the hanger he was in before and onto a catwalk, he skid to a halt next to a control console and he then pressed a button on the console that opened up the hanger doors bellow. He then climbed up onto the guard rails and jumped off of it, he fell out of the ship and continued to fall before the Tornado X-2 suddenly flew underneath him and he landed on the back of it. The jet fighter quickly turned and began to fly towards the coast of Angel Island and as they did they passed by the front of the ship, but more specifically they passed by the bridge, which allowed Infinite to glare at them with out the two known. The Jackal walked over to a control console, he then pressed a button on it that caused the tip of the ship to split open and its massive laser cannon to begin to charge up, which only sped up the energy core's melt down to quicken.

Infinite then hovered the palm of his hand over a red button waiting for the right moment to fire, when suddenly the moment showed itself and Infinite slammed his hand against the button. The Egg Carrier's laser cannon then fired at the Tornado X-2 and due to it being so sudden, and because Sonic had assumed that Eggman removed that weapon, the laser hit the side of the plane taking out its left wings, and causing its front engine to explode which sent the plane into a free fall towards the island. That same beam was also able to hit one of the Resistance's ships and it was completely destroyed by the beam, Sonic and Blue both plummeted towards the circular lake that spilled over the side of the floating island and created the world's largest waterfall, it was also the very same lake Sonic and flown into along side Tails when they first arrived at Angel Island, but Sonic and Blue didn't have time to reminisce over the past.

Instead they had to worry about not crashing into the water, Sonic quickly grabbed onto his smaller self before jumping off of the plane right before it crashed into the shallow end of the lake, and the two of them landed on the sandy beach before tumbling across it, Blue rolling out of Sonic's arms as they did. Once they came to a stop Sonic stood up and looked over to his crashed plane, with the only part of it still viable over the water being the end of it, and the tip of the top right wing. Sonic sighed as he turned around and away from the advanced version of his own plane and faced Blue "You good?"

Blue nodded "Yeah, I'm good."

He then stood up off of the beach and brushed some sand off of him. Suddenly they could both hear the sound of the X-2's radio turning on and the gargled voice of Amy coming through it "S- S- S- Sonic?! A- A- Are you a- a- a- a- alright?!"

Sonic yelled out a response not knowing if she'd even be able to hear him "Yeah I'm fine! But what about you guys! Are you alright!?"

"S- S- S- S- SONIC! YOU'RE ALRIGHT!"

Wow, it worked. Sonic ran over to the crashed plane and tried his best to speak into the radio "Again, are you guys alright, where are you?"

"W- W- W- W- We're in Mushroom Hil- Hil- Hill, and w- w- w- w- we're going t- t- t- t- to Hydro Cit- Cit- City."

Sonic nodded "Got it, we're near Angel Island Zone. So we'll met you guys in Hydro."

"G- G- G- G- G- Got it!"

Sonic then ran out of the water and back onto the beach before saying to Blue "Come on, we gotta head inland."

Blue nodded before they both began to run into the rain forest of Angel Island, that had once been burned down by Eggman, but was steadily recovering from that carnage.

* * *

12:56 A.M. Mushroom Hill Zone.

* * *

Knuckles punched his fist through the head of an Egg Pawn while Amy spun around with her arms outstretched, her hammer crashing through anything that got in her way. Silver lifted another one of the Hover Tanks up off of the ground before throwing it up into the air and making it crash into a group of drone planes, Rookie used his Wispon to destroy a group of Egg Tanks before they had the chance to fire at the group, all the while Sally used her energy blades to defend the rest of the defenseless of the group along side Newt and Tangle.

Amy slammed her hammer on the top of an Egg Pawn's head and that caused the robot to be completely crushed like a soda can. Meanwhile, the longer Knuckles was on his home island the stronger he felt, and that feeling continued to build up before he stared down a hover tank and charged at it, Amy yelled at Knuckles to stop but he wasn't listening. The tank aimed its barrel at him but before it could fire Knuckles jumped off of the ground and charged through the air like a spinning torpedo, a fire aura surrounding his body as he did, which was a move called the Spiral Upper Cut, although it wasn't much of an upper cut at the moment, he then burrowed right through the tank and came out the other side which caused the tank to explode behind him.

Knuckles proudly smiled as he felt his body be filled with the Chaos Energy from the Master Emerald, which he had hidden away long before the Resistance saved Sonic from the Egg Station. He was taken out of his thoughts when he saw the arm of an Egg Pawn wiz past his face, he turned to his right and saw Vector tare apart a robot with his own mouth, Knuckles quickly charged towards the hoard of robots that had surrounded the group of Resistance fighters. Tangle used her tail to grab onto an Egg Pawn and she threw it at an Egg Tank, the two robots exploded and Tangle grinned while she watched the fire works, but she was taken out of that when she heard the sound of a loud boom come over head. Everyone looked up into the sky and saw a large blue beam blast out of the front of the Egg Carrier and hit something small flying around in front of it.

Amy squinted her eyes and was just barely able to see that the small thing, was none other than the Tornado X-2. She was about to yell something when suddenly the Resistance ship that was hovering several feet over them to their right exploded as the Egg Carrier's beam cut right through it. Debris rained down from the sky and that distracted the remaining robots around them allowing Knuckles and Tangle to destroy them quickly, at the same time Amy desperately tuned her communicator to various frequencies trying to get into contact with Sonic. Meanwhile, Tangle ran over to Knuckles and asked him "Where are we even running to?"

Knuckles answered her with "We're heading to Outpost 7, which is in Hydro City Zone."

Tangle nodded as Amy said into her communicator "Sonic! Are you alright?!"

Suddenly the gargled voice of Sonic came through the communicator "Y- Y- Y- Y- Yeah I'm fine! Bu- Bu- Bu- But what abou- abou- about you guys! Ar- Ar- Ar- Aree you alright!?"

Amy's eyes widened in shock as she yelled back "SONIC! YOU'RE ALRIGHT!"

"A- A- A- A- Again, are you gu- gu- gu- gu- guys alright, wh- wh- wh- wh- where are y- y- y- y- you?"

Amy calmed down slightly as she said "We're in Mushroom Hill, and we're going to Hydro City."

"G- G- G- Got it, w- w- w- w- w- we're near Ang- Ang- Ang- Ang- Ang- Angel Island Z- Z- Z- Zone. So we'll met you gu- gu- gu- guys in Hy Hy- Hy- Hydro."

Amy nodded "Got it!"

She then turned off her communicator before turning around and facing the rest of the Resistance. Knuckles motioned them all to return to running forwards, and after another five minutes of running, stopping to fight, and returning to running, they reached a large, flat, boulder. Knuckles quickly grabbed onto the boulder and slid it off of what apparently was an underground stairway. Everyone then ran down the stairway and into a dead end stone room, Knuckles quickly ran over to the wall in front of them and pressed a pressure plate in the wall, suddenly a section of the wall slid open like a door and Knuckles began to usher everyone through it before he then took a moment to make sure they weren't being followed, before turning around and running down the hidden pathway as well. The secret door slid closed before a robot stomped down the stone stairway and into the room. Despite Knuckles' best efforts, he was in to much of a hurry to truly make sure the Resistance wasn't being followed, this robot was the red eyed robot from the Egg Carrier, and it was marked by the words "EEF-1" that were printed on the front of his square like shoulders.

The robot scanned the room and its eyes rested on the obvious, or obvious to him, secret door. The robot stomped over to it and thrust its fist right through the stone before pulling the door out of the wall, at the same time the other seven members of the EFF came down the stone steps and into the room. EEF-1 said to his fellow robots "Our mission is to follow and not to make ourselves known."

The other robots nodded before they all followed after the Resistance, who were running into Hydro City Zone unaware of the Elite Egg Force following after them closely.


	25. Assault On Alpha Base Pt2

**SORRY TO SAY THIS SPIDERDOM.. BUT THE LYRICS OF SATAM'S THEME DON'T WORK TO WELL WHEN YOU ADD IN BLUE'S NAME. AND I GUESS ITS FINE THAT YOU FORGOT TANGLE WAS IN HERE, HAVEN'T USED HER TO MUCH, BUT THAT'S GONNA CHANGE SOON. ALSO, THIS CHAPTER IS PRETTY LONG SO IF YOU GUYS WOULD LIKE. I CAN SPLIT IT IN TWO, JUST LET ME KNOW IF I SHOULD, AND I'LL DO IT.**

* * *

12:57 A.M. Angel Island Zone.

* * *

Sonic and Blue ran through the recovering jungle heading to the back of the Zone, the very same spot the two Sonic's fought Eggman and were dropped into Hydro City by Knuckles. While they ran Buzz Bombers flew over head and fired at them, Sonic jumped out of the way of one of the Bomber's fire before Homing Attacking into it, once he landed he looked over to Blue "Alright, this place is a mine field of enemies. And the Resistance needs us now. So I'm gonna distract the robots around here, while you make your way to Hydro."

Blue nodded before Sonic boosted away, Blue then jumped up into the air and Drop Dashed away heading deeper into the jungle. Sonic ran in between the tall trees of the jungle, boosting as he did, he then took a quick glance over his shoulder and saw that a small group of Buzz Bombers were chasing after him, and even though it was small now, the group was slowly growing bigger with each passing second. Sonic grinned before quickly drifting around and running back the way he had just come, meanwhile, Blue ran through the parts of the jungle he was most familiar with, ash still clung to the ground in clumps from when it was burned down, he then realized that he was nearing that area of the jungle with the massive waterfall and large rocks that stuck out of it.

But the waterfall wasn't there, it had been blocked by debris from the Resistance ship that had exploded not to long ago. Blue suddenly skid to a halt which saved him from falling down a cliff he had forgotten about, but while he came to a stop he saw that in the lake that the waterfall fed into had also dried up, and inside of it there was a pretty size able group of Egg Pawns and various other robots that were setting up some kind of base camp. Blue quickly turned on his earpiece and said into it "Sonic! Found something near that waterfall, the one with the rocks, anyways its like some kind of base camp that's being built by robots."

"Got it, on my way."

Blue then turned off his earpiece and quickly turned around before getting enough of a distance away from the ledge to get a good running start at a jump. He then landed on the other side of the jungle and he was about to run forwards again when suddenly he could hear the sound of Sonic yell over head "Look out bellow!"

Suddenly the chunk of metal from the destroyed ship was dislodged from the top of the waterfall's cliff, and ridding on top of it was Sonic. Blue watched as water chased after him and the chunk of metal, but before him and the chunk hit the bottom of the lake bellow them Sonic jumped off of it and onto a small dirt pathway on the side of the cliff Blue was just on. The smaller Hedgehog continued to watch as water swept away the under construction base camp, and with a grin on his face, he quickly spun around and continued to run forwards. He then quickly reached a large cliff that he'd have to climb up, so he jumped up and used his speed to jump from bits of rock that were sticking out of the side of the cliff.

Once at the top, he grabbed onto it and pulled himself up onto the ground above him before running forwards again. Suddenly he heard the sound of a large explosion over head and the voice of Sonic came over the earpiece "Look out!"

Blue looked up into the air and saw the Egg Carrier begin to crumble and explode. Chunks of metal rained down from the sky as blue light began to come out of the ship like spot lights, Blue quickly jumped out of the way of one of the chunks of metal and quickly Drop Dashed forwards. He then jumped back up onto his feet and started to run forwards again and up a large hill when suddenly he heard the sound of a metallic screech over head followed by the sound of a jet engine approaching him. Blue looked over to his right as he ran and saw a large, hawk like, red, jet plane flying towards him, and sitting in its pilot seat was Infinite, Blue quickly said into his earpiece "Sonic! There's a giant metal hawk charging right at me!"

"What?! That thing's called the Egg Hawk! But don't worry, it wasn't that big of a challenge when Neo was driving it, so it shouldn't be that bad. Just don't get yourself shredded."

Blue nodded when suddenly he saw the Hawk extend its metallic legs, its talon pointed feet aimed straight at him. It swooped right towards him and he didn't have enough time to truly react, so he jumped up into the air and grabbed onto the side of one of the legs, suddenly the voice of Infinite came over his earpiece "The Doctor may have ordered me to simply observe this mission. But he never said anything about killing those that have destroyed his prized ship!"

The Egg Hawk flew high up into the air and Blue struggled to hold on. Eventually the Hawk was over the Egg Carrier, which was struggling to keep itself in the air while its core continued to melt down, and gravity finally took its toll on Blue. His fingers slipped and he fell onto the top of the ship, he quickly scrambled up to his feet and began to run forwards when suddenly he heard the Egg Hawk let out a screech before the large plane attempted to cut Blue in half with its metal wing, luckily the Hedgehog came to a stop just an inch away from the wing as it scrapped across the metal roof of the Egg Carrier. Blue quickly charged up a Spin Dash and sped off while the Egg Hawk circled back around and began to fly right towards him, its metal beak opened up and a gatling gun extended out of its metal mouth. Blue jumped up to his feet as the Egg Hawk's gun charged up and fired at him.

He quickly dove behind the remains of a turret that was just tall enough to block the bullets that were being fired at him. A disgruntled Infinite flew over head and made the Egg Hawk circle back around as Blue continued to run across the top of the Carrier. The Hawk extended its metal legs and attempted to pin Blue to the ground with its talons but the Hedgehog quickly jumped back right before the plane slammed into the ship, getting its own talons lodged in the roof. Blue charged up a Spin Dash and let himself speed off into the leg in front of him, the Egg Hawk shuddered as it let out a screech before Blue cut right through the leg, and with a small explosion, it came clean off. Infinite was finally able to dislodge the plane from the Egg Carrier's roof and he quickly made it fly away, at the same time Blue charged up a Spin Dash and rocketed forwards when suddenly the Egg Hawk circled back around and attempted to cut Blue in half with its wing again.

But unlike last time Infinite was to late and missed Blue, only causing sparks to fly from where the wing cut across the roof of the Carrier. Suddenly the Egg Carrier shuddered and there was a large explosion in front of Blue, he watched as the ship split in half before sighing and crouching down onto the ground. He ran in place, getting faster and faster until finally he let go and sped off in his Super 8 Peel-Out, that move gave him just enough speed to make it across the gap in between the two sides of the Egg Carrier. While a Spin Dash gave him a lot of speed, and so did a Drop Dash, the Peel-Out gave him more speed, but was a lot more time consuming to charge up, which is one of the reasons why he doesn't use it very much. Once he landed on the other side of the ship he sped forwards and the Egg Hawk circled back around and it attempted to skewer him on its sharp beak.

But Blue quickly jumped up and landed on the top of the plane's beak. He stood up and turned around to face the cockpit of the plane, and Infinite "Why don't you face me like a real Jackal?"

Infinite growled at Blue before quickly jerking the Hawk's control stick back causing the plane to suddenly fly upwards. Which also caused Blue to fall onto the glass roof of the cockpit, and to tumble across the backside of the plane before finally falling off of it. Blue flailed through the air as he fell, there was no way he could survive a fall from this height, he had to do something! That's when there were several different explosions that came out of the Egg Carrier and sent debris up into the air, most of it was also thrown up at Blue, he landed on a panel that had come off of the Carrier before quickly jumping off of that and onto a different piece of debris, he'd continue to do this until he safely landed on the front half of the Egg Carrier again. He quickly charged up a Spin Dash and rocketed away as the Egg Hawk circled over head, it opened up its beak and fired its gatling gun at Blue while he continued to roll across the top of the Egg Carrier.

Eventually Blue jumped up to his feet as he began to run across the very tip of the Carrier. Above him he heard the Egg Hawk screech before Infinite said "I'm not letting you get away!"

The plane swooped down at Blue but the Hedgehog quickly jumped up and grabbed onto the underside of the plane. It soared through the air and away from the Egg Carrier as its front side collided with the side of a mountain causing a large explosion to come off of it. The Egg Hawk suddenly flipped over so that Blue was now on top, he was about to ask himself why Infinite did that but he saw the reason, Infinite was hoping that he could knock Blue off by ramming him into the side of a Resistance ship while the Egg Hawk escaped unscathed. Blue quickly fell onto his stomach and just barely missed the side of the ship, who's underside was know brushing against the tips of his quills. Once they were away from the ship, Infinite made the Egg Hawk flipped back over and Blue quickly grabbed onto the underside of the plane, it almost immediately nose dived down at the ground and Blue's grip on the underside of the plane was weakening as gravity worked against him.

He tried to hold on as long as he could, but eventually gravity got the better of him and his fingers slipped right out of the tiny crack he had grabbed onto. The Egg Hawk then corrected its path and flew high up into the air as Blue continued to plummet down towards the jungle's ground. He suddenly hit the canopy of the jungle and once he came out the other end he was wrapped up in vines that trapped him in midair, Blue struggled to break free from the vines' hold when he suddenly heard the sound of the Egg Hawk screeching at him. He looked up into the air and saw it dive bombing him, it extended its leg and aimed its talons at him, at the same time it opened its beak and began to charge up its gatling gun. Blue flailed around as he tried to force himself out of the vines, when suddenly the built in radio inside of the Egg Hawk's cockpit turned on and the voice of Eggman yelled through it "INFINITE!"

Infinite gritted his teeth as he tightened his grip on the Hawk's control stick. He looked over to the radio, then to Blue, his finger hovered over the button that would fire the Hawk's gatling gun, he trembled in anger before letting out a furious yell and making the plane swerve up into the air, its leg retracted, and its beak closed. Infinite then glared at the radio "WHAT?!"

"What. Did. You. Do. To. My.. SHIP?!"

Infinite made the Egg Hawk level out before answering "The twin rodents destroyed your Carrier."

"And why have you taken out the Egg Hawk without my permission?!"

Infinite's grip grew tighter in anger "Because, they needed to be punished for that action."

"I told you.. YOU ARE ONLY TO OBSERVE THE ATTACK! NOT PARTICIPATE!"

Eggman then sighed "..The EEF will continue to deal with the Resistance.. As for YOU, you're going to return to Metropolis so you can be punished for YOUR actions."

Infinite then said "But, if we capture the island we will be able to take down the Resistance's largest base! I must stay here to do that!"

"No. I, will deal with the island. You are returning to Metropolis and being punished.. There is no negotiating this."

Infinite grumbled to himself as Eggman turned off the radio and Infinite flew the Egg Hawk away from Angel Island. Meanwhile, back in Angel Island Zone, Blue finally broke free from the vines wrapped around him and fell onto the ground bellow him. He picked himself up and brushed his body off before running forwards again, heading towards the same spot he first entered Hydro City Zone during his first time on the island. While he ran he said into his earpiece "I'm heading to Hydro now, how are you doing?"

"Pretty good, tell me when you're actually in the Zone and I'll head down into it too."

Blue nodded and said "Got it, see you soon!"

He then reached the area he was heading towards and saw that the entrance, or more accurately the trap door Knuckles had sprung on him during his first time in the Zone, was sealed by a large boulder. Blue Spin Dashed through the boulder and fell down into Hydro City much like he did his first, and second, time he entered the Zone.

* * *

12:59 A.M. Underneath Angel Island, Hydro City Zone.

* * *

Rookie and the rest of the Resistance ran through the streets of the strange, underground, city made out of yellow stone. If he had the time Rookie would ask Knuckles why there was a city under Angel Island, but he didn't exactly have the time so it'd have to wait. Eventually the group all came to a stop and Knuckles turned around to face the rest of the group "Alright.. We should be safe here."

The members of the group all let out a sigh of relief as they calmed down from all of their running, and fighting. But, unknown to them, in the shadows behind them the Elite Egg Force was watching them. EEF-3 looked over to EEF-1 and said "Do we engage?"

EEF-1 was silent for a moment or so, before he said "Yes. We will engage them, but only to force them into a dead end. Keep in the shadows, and do not be seen."

The rest of the Elite Egg Force nodded before EEF-1 turned its two hands into gatling guns, and began to rev them up. Tangle could hear something out of the corner of her ear and when she looked over her shoulder she saw eight sets of red eyes staring at her and the Resistance from the shadows, and while she yelled out "Look out!"

EEF-1 fired off at the group and it caused them to quickly scurry into a run. While they ran the rest of the Elite Egg Force chased after them from the shadows and also fired at the fleeing Resistance. Rookie tried to scan their surroundings for the attackers, but whenever he was able to actually see one of them they immediately fired at his head and he had to quickly duck, or be killed, which also caused him to lose sight of them. Shadow attempted to throw a Chaos Spear at one of them bet the robot he had throw it at dodged the attack and grabbed the spear of Chaos Energy, before throwing it right back at Shadow with its massive hand. Rouge quickly pulled out several tiny explosives and threw them at three of the robots, but one of the EEF over to her right suddenly fired a laser at the center bomb and caused a chain reaction that took all of the explosives out.

Silver stretched his arm out and attempted to use his telekinesis to pick one of the robots up, but that same robot stopped dead in its tracks and stared at Silver, and just a moment before the white Hedgehog used his powers, the robot stretched its own arms out and Silver was blasted backwards by a green colored telekinetic blast. He was quickly helped up to his feet by Amy while Tangle picked up a chunk of rock and threw it at one of the robots, but that robot quickly cut the rock in half with its twin bladed hand. Tangle's shoulder was quickly grabbed by Rotor who pulled her out of the way of an incoming missile, which had been fired by EEF-1, the two of them then returned to running as Rookie attempted to use his Wispon on EEF-5 but it was to far from him.

Rookie let out an angered grunt as he put his Wispon away, when suddenly Vector said to him "Here! Take this!"

He then tossed Rookie a green colored Wispon and Vector also said "Nab'd it before we teleported out of the Beta Base."

While he did. Rookie took a quick moment to inspect the Wispon, and saw that written on its side was "Hover" but before he could ask what that meant he heard the sound of a robot attempting to fire at him. He quickly raised the Hover Wispon up and pulled its trigger, before a blast of green energy came out of it and knocked the robot back. While it wasn't destroyed, it did stun the bot, which was the most he could hope to accomplish at the moment so he quickly came to a stop and fired at EEF-1 as it tried to fire a missile at the rest of the group. When the robot was knocked backwards it involuntarily fired off its missile and the RPG flew through the air before hitting the ground in between Rookie and the rest of the Resistance, the blast from the missile knocked Rookie back and onto the ground, while the rest of the group were knocked away from him.

As Rookie picked himself up off of the ground he could feel the stone path they were on shudder. Cracks began to form underneath them, when suddenly the path fell crumbled away, and the members of the Resistance all began to fall down a pit that had just been formed. Knuckles quickly grabbed onto Amy and punched his other fist into the side of the pit, stopping his fall, he then tossed Amy up to the safe part of the path they were just on. Rouge quickly grabbed onto Shadow's hands and began to fly the both of them up out of the pit, while Tangle wrapped her tail around Rotor's abdomen and quickly grabbed onto the side of the pit in front of her. While she did the Chaotix formed a chain, Charmy on top, Espio in the middle, and Vector on the bottom, and Charmy flew all three of them out of the pit along side Rouge. And Silver quickly teleported the rest of the members out of the pit as well, but Silver's telekinetic power didn't reach Rookie so the poor red Wolf continued to fall down the pit.

Knuckles quickly looked over the side of the pit wall and yelled down to Rookie "Press the yellow button!"

Rookie immediately slammed his thumb on the yellow button that was on the Wispon's handle. Instantly the Wispon lifted itself upwards and Rookie began to float upwards, as he was just about to reach the top of the pit EEF-1 fired another missile, this time aimed at the pit's wall, and when it hit its target and exploded water rushed out of the newly created hole. The rushing water hit Rookie and caused his thumb to move off of the button, stopping his self levitation, he began to fall back down into the pit and his fall was only being sped up by the water weighing down on him. Silver quickly sprung into action and used his telekinesis to lift Rookie out of the water and up onto the top of the pit with the rest of the Resistance. Suddenly EEF-2 thrust its right hand out and a telekinetic blast came out of it which caused the path to shuddered and it began to fall apart again.

But the Resistance group quickly ran forwards as the pathway behind them fell apart. Rookie used the Hover Wispon to blast away a missile that had been fired at them, the missile almost hit one of the robots but EEF-8 quickly took it out with a quick laser blast, and the robot that had almost been hit was only left with minor burn marks from the explosion. They all continued to run, fire at, or get fired at, when Sally finally yelled out "Where are we going!?"

Knuckles ducked underneath an incoming bullet before saying "The only place we'll be truly safe at! Hidden Palace Zone!"

Sally quickly looked ahead of the group and saw that they were running towards a set of large double doors made out of crystal. EEF-1 fired its gatling gun hands at the Resistance group while they neared the doors, but they were able to dodge the bullets and Knuckles quickly lunged forwards and shoved the twin doors open. He ushered the group into a large cave made of crystal that had a wooden bridge connecting the outcrop that the doors were on, to a large circular platform in the center of the cave, and then another bridge connected that platform to a different outcrop that had two much larger double doors. The Resistance ran across both sets of the bridges and Knuckles began to try and shove the doors open, when suddenly the doors behind them were exploded by a missile that had been fired by EEF-1 and the robot stomped into view.

Everyone turned around and stared at EEF-1 and Rouge gasped before saying "Omega?"

EEF-1 looked exactly like Omega, only with red eyes, and his colors had been inverted meaning that the black parts of his body were black, and the black parts of his body were red. EEF-1 clenched his fists "Negative. I am Elite Egg Force-1, leader of Eggman's squad of assassin androids."

Suddenly the rest of the Elite Egg Force walked into the cave and stood next to, and behind EEF-1. Shadow scanned the group and could tell who each one of them were thanks to his knowledge of Eggman's forces from G.U.N. EEF-2 was actually a replica of E-100 Alpha only it was black, red, yellow, and much like the rest of the EEF its eyes were bright red, which was unlike the original Alpha who was green, red, yellow, and black. EEF-3 was a replica of the upgraded E-101 Beta, and the only noticeable difference was that the white parts on its body were red. EEF-4 was a replica of E-102 Gamma and the noticeable difference between it and the original Gamma was that the red parts of its body were black, and the white parts of its body were red. EEF-5 to EEF-7 all looked identical to EEF-4 and were presumably replicas of, in order, E-103 Delta, E-104 Epsilon, and E-105 Zeta. And finally EEF-8 looked to be a replica of E-121 Phi, which was weird because the original was a replica of Emerl, and the differences between EEF-8 and Phi was that 8 was colored pure black.

Rouge tried to stop forwards as she said "N- No it can't be, Omega, you can't-"

But Shadow quickly grabbed onto Rouge's shoulder, stopping her "That is him.. We never found Omega's body after Eggman's conquest on Green Hill City."

Rouge looked at Shadow, then back to EEF-1, before sadly stepping back. EEF-4 was about to aim its gun arm at the Resistance but EEF-1 quickly stopped it and said "Negative, we wait."

Just then the crystal ceiling over the circular platform began to grow, until a crystal ball came off of it and landed on the platform. Suddenly that ball of crystal morphed into Crystal Chaos and it quickly flung its right arm out and attempted to grab at the Resistance. But they were able to duck underneath each swipe, but Chaos was some how able to grab onto Rookie and it pulled the red Wolf over to the platform. The top of EEF-1's right shoulder sprout up like a hatch and a missile fired out of it, said missile then hit the bridge in front of the Resistance cutting Rookie off from them. The red Wolf quickly scrambled up to his feet and picked up the Hover Wispon, Crystal Chaos then jabbed its fist into the ground in front of him, and suddenly a wave of crystal spikes charged towards Rookie. He quickly jumped out of the wave's way as a giant spike came out of the ground where Rookie was, and as Crystal Chaos took its hand out of the ground the spikes that had been formed from the wave disappeared.

Rookie then blasted Crystal Chaos with the Hover Wispon and the crystal being staggered backwards. Rookie then Wire Attacked into Crystal Chaos causing the monster to fall down into the pit that surrounded the platform. As Chaos fell its right arm hit a jagged crystal rock that was sticking out of the pillar base of the platform above, it then quickly absorbed the crystal rock and fused into side of the pillar. Crystal Chaos then came out of the platform in front of Rookie, only this time he was taller, and its right arm was much bigger than before. It had turned into Crystal Chaos 1, it thrust its large hand at Rookie who jumped out of its way and attempted to blast Chaos 1 with his Wispon. But the creature quickly swiped its large arm at Rookie and knocked the red Wolf off of the platform, but he was able to quickly grab onto the side of the platform, Crystal Chaos 1 then stomped over to Rookie and loomed over him. He then quickly raised up his Wispon and blasted Crystal Chaos 1's head with it causing the creature to stagger backwards, Rookie then finally pulled himself up onto the platform as Chaos 1 recovered from the previous attack.

Rookie quickly ran over to Crystal Chaos 1 and jumped up into the air before spinning around and kicking the back of Chaos 1's head. Which only proved to cause pain to the red Wolf, he fell to the ground as Crystal Chaos 1 turned around loomed over Rookie. It reared its right arm back, clenched into a fist, the arm thrust down at Rookie's head but the red Wolf quickly rolled out of the fist's way before jumping up onto his feet. He then aimed the Hover Wispon at Crystal Chaos and fired at it again, this time Crystal Chaos 1 attempted to block the attack but it was still blasted backwards almost to the edge of the platform. Rookie then jumped up and Wire Attacked into Chaos 1 off of the platform, a moment latter and suddenly Crystal Chaos lunged at Rookie out of the cave wall in front of him. This time Crystal Chaos had turned into Crystal Chaos 4, Rookie rolled out of Chaos 4's way as it smashed onto the spot of the platform where Rookie was, the red Wolf then quickly raised up his Hover Wispon before firing it at Crystal Chaos 4, which caused the creature to slide across the platform and before it fell off of it Chaos 4 jumped up into the air and morphed into the ground underneath it.

A moment latter and Crystal Chaos 4 suddenly jumped out of the ground next to Rookie who fell down onto his stomach and the creature flew over him and into the ground again. Rookie scrambled back up onto his feet before Crystal Chaos 4 jumped out of the ground again and Rookie quickly fired his Wispon at the creature which caused it to fall onto the ground and disappear into it. Rookie scanned the room looking for Crystal Chaos 4, but all he saw were the Elite Egg Force, and the Resistance, when suddenly a mound of crystals came out of the center of the platform, it was Chaos, only now it was Crystal Chaos 6. Several crystal tendrils came out of Chaos and one of them quickly wrapped around Rookie and lifted him up into the air, Crystal Chaos 6 then quickly smashed Rookie against the roof of the cave which caused him to drop the Wispon in his hand, luckily Tails quickly lunged forwards and grabbed onto the Wispon before it fell into the pit bellow.

Crystal Chaos 6 roared at Rookie before smashing him against the ground of the platform. At the same time Tails ran over to Bunnie, who was still carrying Antoine, who was still carrying laptop Nicole, and Tails took Nicole out of Antoine's hands before setting her down on the ground and he began to take apart the laptop's keyboard. He set the Wispon down next to the laptop as Nicole said "H- Hey! What are you doing?"

At the same time Crystal Chaos 6 tossed Rookie up into the air and a different tendril wrapped around his abdomen. It then slammed Rookie back down onto the ground and dragged him across it, while Tails opened up a panel on the side of the Wispon and pulled some wires out of the laptop, while he did that he answered Nicole's question "I'm trying to help Rookie!"

He then began to plug the wires into the Wispon as Crystal Chaos 6 roared at Rookie again. It then plunged one of its tendrils into the ground before letting go of Rookie, once the red Wolf groaned as he tried to stand up a tendril smacked into him and sent him flying towards the cave wall behind him. As soon as Rookie hit the wall a tendril came out of it and wrapped around Rookie again, it then began to drag Rookie across the jagged walls of the cave. The tendril then threw Rookie back towards Crystal Chaos 6 where he was then grabbed by another tendril that was connected to Chaos 6, and not the walls of the cave, Crystal Chaos 6 roared at Rookie again as it began to move him closer to its own mouth. At the same time Tails finished what he was doing to the Wispon before quickly throwing it over to Rookie, forgetting to take out the wires he had plugged in before he did, Rookie then caught it and aimed the Wispon at Crystal Chaos 6's mouth.

But he would have to wait for the right moment to fire the Wispon at Crystal Chaos 6. That perfect moment showed itself when Chaos 6 opened its mouth completely, Rookie then pulled the trigger and the Wispon fired, which had its blasting power magnified by Tails. Crystal Chaos 6 crumbled into pieces of crystal shards and so did the tendril wrapped around him, but that wasn't the only thing that happened, the bridge in front of the Elite Egg Force was blasted into pieces as well. Rookie fell onto the ground as the regular Crystal Chaos began to reform out of the crystal chunks, Rookie attempted to fire the Wispon at Chaos again but the previous blast had fried its systems, preventing it from firing again, so Rookie quickly tossed the Wispon away and he fired his grappling hook at the wall next to the Elite Egg Force. He then jumped up into the air and began to retract the wire and he then slammed into Crystal Chaos sending it flying off towards the group of robots behind it, Crystal Chaos's right arm hit EEF-4 and its jagged fingers punctured the robot's metal body.

Crystal Chaos then fell down into the pit and dragged EEF-4 off of the outcrop the Elite Egg Force were standing on. But EEF-1 quickly grabbed onto EEF-4's left arm, sadly the dead weight of Crystal Chaos caused its arm to be ripped off and EEF-4 fell into the pit along side Crystal Chaos. EEF-1 slowly looked up and at Rookie before letting go of EEF-4's arm, EEF-1 then turned its hands into gatling guns and they began to rev up when Shadow suddenly teleported in front of Rookie and quickly yelled out "Chaos Control!"

He then thrust his hands out and threw a sphere of green energy at EEF-1. Once it connected with the robot the entire Elite Egg Force froze in place as time stopped around them, Shadow then turned around and he walked over to the side of the platform that the Resistance were looking at. Shadow jumped back to where he was standing on before, Rookie then grappled over to the outcrop before Knuckles finally was able to shove the door open. While the Resistance walked into the room that the doors led to Rouge looked over to Shadow and said to him "Why didn't you do that before?"

Shadow didn't look at Rouge as he answered "Because I've never fought Chaos before, so I didn't know what to expect out of it."

Rouge sighed as she nodded, she then looked over her shoulder and at the Elite Egg Force who were still frozen in time. She let out a sad sigh as she stared at her brainwashed friend before Knuckles closed the doors behind the Resistance. A moment latter and time returned to normal for the Elite Egg Force, EEF-1 scanned the cave for the Resistance but he didn't see anything. He returned his hands to normal before glaring at the double doors in front of him, he couldn't walk up to the doors due to a lack of a bridge, so for now he couldn't do anything to the Resistance.

* * *

1:09 A.M. West Side Island, Metropolis, Eggman's Base in the City.

* * *

Eggman walked through his base heading towards its main control room. Infinite had yet to show up and return his Egg Hawk, so Eggman was basically alone in the base. He then entered into the control room and walked over to a specific console in front of him, he pressed a yellow button on it and the metal blinds that covered the room's windows slid open giving Eggman a perfect view of his city. But he didn't have time to sit around and stare at his handwork, instead he walked over to a different console and pressed black and yellow striped button on it, then in the center of the room a single slim pedestal rose out of the floor, and sitting on top of that pedestal was a red button.

Eggman walked over to it, a wicked grin on his face, he then hovered his hand over the button and said to himself "I wonder how the Resistance will react when they get a load of this!"

He then slammed his hand against the button and sirens began to go off in the city bellow. He walked back over to one of the windows and stared out of it as a missile silo opened up and allowed a large rocket to fly out of it. Eggman watched as the rocket flew high up into the sky before a second missile followed after it, his wicked grin never leaving his face as he watched. On the side of each rocket was the symbol of the Eggman Empire, and a special serial number specific to each rocket, not only that but there was also a black and yellow trefoil symbol on each of the rockets. Eggman then turned around and began to walk out of the room, once he left it Orbot hovered over to him and said "Infinite will be arriving in two minutes, and we have completed your schematics on the Egg Imperium."

Eggman continued to grin as he said "Excellent.. Orbot, I would like you to prepare something for Infinite."

Orbot lifted itself up into the air and said "What is it?"

Its boss began to rub his hands together as he answered "Oh.. Its his very _special_ punishment."

Eggman would then proceed to explain what he meant to Orbot while they both continued to walk through the base, and into the Stasis Room.

* * *

1:10 A.M. Angel Island, Hidden Place Zone.

* * *

Knuckles turned around to face his fellow Resistance fighters and said "As you all know, Eggman's empire has scored several major victories against us. He has destroyed Beta Base, he has discovered the location of Alpha Base, and he has turned Omega against us.. But we must not forget, hope is not lost, the Phantom Ruby is still powerless with out the Death Egg. And we can only assume Sonic and Blue have destroyed the Egg Carrier which should prove to be a major problem for Eggman's fleet. We can still win this! We haven't lost yet!"

Amy nodded as she walked over to Knuckles and stood next to him "He's right. Eggman expects us to try and hide here so that we can recover from what he thinks to be his greatest attack yet. But, if we rush his city sooner rather than latter, we'll be able to get the drop on him and finally win this war!"

The rest of the Resistance fighters all let out cries of agreement and excitement when suddenly the sound of some one running towards the large, high roofed, room could be heard. They all faced the left wall where the sound was coming from when suddenly a large hole opened up and Sonic ran into the room followed by Blue. Knuckles let out a sigh as he said "You two scared us."

Sonic grinned slightly "Sorry, but we got caught up dealing with a bunch of robots in the entrance of Hydro."

Blue nodded before adding "Not just that, but a bunch of the city's roads were completely destroyed so we had to find another way around."

Sonic looked around the large room. There were tall, jagged, crystal pillars stretching up from the floor and to the ceiling, not only that but there were intricate carvings in the floor, walls, and even along the pillars. He then said "Honestly, we just stumbled upon this place, we thought you guys were some where in Hydro still."

Knuckles shook his head "No, some new robot assassins called the Elite Egg Force chased us into Hidden Palace, and into here."

Newt then suddenly said "And where is here?"

Knuckles turned around and faced Newt before answering "This specific room we're in was a temple for one of the former Echidna tribes, the Nocturnus, before they became very science based.. This was also once the shrine for the Master Emerald back during the short two centuries the Echidnas were united. And speaking of the Master Emerald."

He then motioned to the back wall of the room when suddenly the Master Emerald suddenly began to glow. It was placed on top of a small shrine made up of the blueish purple crystals that made up the entirety of Hidden Palace Zone. Sonic smiled as he walked over to Knuckles and patted the red Echidna's back "Way to go Knux! You've actually guarded the Master Emerald properly for once!"

Knuckles chuckled sourly before saying "Don't.. Don't joke about that."

Sonic chuckled "You got it Knux."

When suddenly a massive stalactite began to form out of the roof of the room and it came to the halfway point of the room. The tip of the stalactite suddenly projected a blue colored holographic image of Angel Island, and it showed the Resistance that a large rocket missile was heading right for the island. Everyone walked over to the holographic image and Blue said "Since when could this place do that?"

Knuckles stammered out "I- I don't know."

He held his hand out and tried to touch the small, holographic, image of the missile flying towards the island and suddenly several strings of text written in Echidna Runes appeared around it. Tangle then spoke up "Can anyone read this thing?"

Knuckles nodded slightly "Yeah.. I can read some of it.."

He then inspected the strings of rune text before finding one that he could understand "This- This says that the missile.. Its.. Its a nuclear missile!"

Sonic's eyes widened in shock "Eggman's got his hands on nukes?!"

Knuckles quickly turned around as the missile was just a few feet over Mushroom Hill Zone and yelled out "Hold on!"

Everyone quickly grabbed onto something stable near them before the missile hit the island, and a loud boom could be heard from inside of Hidden Palace. The entire island shuddered and the Master Emerald's glow flickered as Knuckles let out a yell of pain. A moment later and the Island began to fall out of the sky and down into the ocean bellow it, everyone struggled to hold onto what they had grabbed onto a moment ago while the island fell. Almost a second after the missile hit Angel Island and it finally crashed into the ocean causing everyone to fall onto the ground. Meanwhile, over the open ocean, Infinite silently seethed with anger as he flew the Egg Hawk to Metropolis, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. He let out a yell of pain before the spirit of Tikal came out of the Phantom Ruby and quickly flew out of the Egg Hawk.

Infinite attempted to stop her from escaping but he just barely missed her, he let out an angered grunt as he continued to fly forwards, while Tikal flew towards Angel Island. Knuckles struggled to stand up off of the ground, and so did everyone else, but once they got up onto their feet Knuckles looked back over to the stalactite's projection and saw a second nuclear missile heading right towards the island. He sighed as he simply stared at the slowly coming missile without any way to stop it, when suddenly, in a bright flash of pink light, the spirit of Tikal appeared in front of him and she said to him "Guardian! The island is in need of protection!"

Knuckles sighed "But.. How? And, why did you reappear.. W- What is even going on?!"

Tikal also sighed "All will be answered soon, but right now we must protect our home!"

She then suddenly flew into Knuckles, and in a bright flash of light, his appearance changed slightly. He now had several tribal necklaces around his neck, they had various beads, gems, and stones that had runes carved into them, he also had various bracelets all along his arms, and they two had beads and stones with runes carved into them. Not just that but he also had gold metal placed over his knuckles which were faceted to his hands by brown string that wrapped around the bottom of his hand, he also had some kind of head dress on as well. Knuckles stared at his body in confusion "What just happened to me?"

Suddenly, a green gem on his center necklace began to glow, and the voice of Tikal came through it "I have transformed you into Chief Knuckles the Echidna. Leader of the New Echidna Clans."

Knuckles took in a shaky breath "Oookay.. And how do I stop that nuke?"

Suddenly a wooden staff appeared in his hand and Tikal said "You will use this staff to command the power of the Master Emerald as you see fit."

Knuckles looked over his shoulder and to the Master Emerald, which was slowly regaining its glow, he then looked back over to the Resistance and he began to feel more confident all of a sudden "Alright guys.. I'll be right back."

He then quickly turned around and run towards the Master Emerald, before jumping up on top of it. He then slammed the bottom of his staff against the top of the emerald and suddenly the two of them disappeared in a bright flash of light. Everyone that was still in the room looked at each other in confusion. Meanwhile, above ground, Knuckles stood atop the Master Emerald as he watched the nuclear missile come towards his island, he then raised his staff high up into the air with both of his hands gripped around it, green energy arched off of the Master Emerald and up to the bottom of the staff before Knuckles slammed it down onto the top of the emerald and a large shock wave came out of it that rolled across the island, making trees and grass bend back, before a large beam of green light shot out of the top of the Emerald and up into the sky.

That beam then created a massive, green colored, energy field around the island. And green energy arched off of the field and onto the missile, it was stopped in midair by that energy before it then disintegrated into harmless ash that fell into the ocean bellow it. Knuckles then stared in the direction of West Side and said to himself "Your empire's borders will always stop here Eggman. No matter what time period, or even reality it exists in, your borders end. Where my island begins."

Suddenly him and the Master Emerald disappeared in another bright flash of light, which returned the two of them to the Nocturnus temple in Hidden Palace Zone.


	26. Race Across the Metropolitan Highway

1:16 A.M. Angel Island, Hidden Palace Zone.

* * *

Knuckles and the Master Emerald suddenly reappeared in the Nocturnus temple in a bright flash of light. He jumped off of his prized gem, his various necklaces and bracelets jingling as he did, once he landed on the ground the spirit of Tikal came out of his body and his tribal clothes disappeared, and so did his staff. Knuckles sighed slightly "Kinda liked that stuff."

Tikal giggled "If you would like to have them back at a latter date, then just let me know. But for now, I must rest."

She then flew over to the Master Emerald and into it as well. Knuckles took in a deep breath and let it out before clapping his hands together "Alright.. Now that that's done. We can go back to our real mission, taking down Egghead's empire!"

Rouge nodded "And thanks to Blue, we actually have a chance at charging straight into Metropolis now that the Phantom Ruby's powerless."

Shadow grinned slightly "That should effectively put a stop to the Doctor's greatest weapon."

Vector nodded "Yeah! And on top of all that! It made an opening for us! We can't just let that go to waste."

Tangle punched her fist into her open palm before saying "This is the moment we've been waiting for. Time to settle the score!"

Sonic suddenly spoke up "I call dibs on taking down tall, dark, and Phantom Ruby-less!"

Blue nodded "And I call dibs on smashing Eggman into an omelette!"

Rouge giggled slightly at the two Sonics "Don't count your chickens before you smash your eggs."

Blue rolled his eyes but Sonic nodded "Yeah, even though Infinite doesn't have a working Phantom Ruby, that doesn't mean he isn't dangerous. Same goes for Egghead. Which means we can't let our guards down."

Amy sighed "I just want everyone to get home safe, okay?"

Knuckles nodded "Alright, fine. Everyone get your game face on! The target is Eggman at the Metropolis Central Tower!"

Espio suddenly spoke up "I hate to sour the moment. But how do we plan on getting there? Our fleet can't transport us there due to just how much damage they took during the Egg Carrier's attack, which means they've become flying death traps. We don't have any more ships to travel across the sea now that Beta Base is down, and we can't make anymore without the proper tools. About the only ones who can take us off of this island would be Shadow, Silver, and Sonic, but they might risk growing tired transporting us all back to West Side."

Knuckles sighed "You're right Espio.. We don't really have a way back to West Side right now.. B- But I know we can think of something here soon!"

Suddenly a massive doorway appeared in the wall that's to Knuckles' left, and everyone else's right. That doorway lead into a large room ruffly smaller than the one they were in currently, and it looked to be more circular, not only that but there was also a giant crystal ball hanging from the ceiling of that room, said ball was made up of the same red crystals from the Echidna Teleporter, and there was a large circular space of stone underneath the ball. Everyone looked over to Knuckles, all of their looks meaning "What?"

And Knuckles simply said "I- I guess the Nocturnus were always advanced."

Everyone walked into the room and saw that the giant crystal ball was being held up by a single, giant, stalactite. As Knuckles stared up at the crystal ball a strange pedestal rose out of the ground in front of him, it was made of crystal much like everything else in there, and once it stopped a holographic keyboard with runes instead of letters appeared on it. Knuckles stared at his glove which had all of his fingers except for his thumb in one pocket, Amy then walked over to him and he got out of her way which allowed her to inspect the holo-keyboard "Wow, this is cool!"

Knuckles nodded "Yeah... And I think this place likes me."

Sonic then said "How do you know?"

"Because I am currently being forced into a thrown"

Everyone looked over to him and saw that the ground was sprouting a crystal thrown, and Knuckles was to weirded out to move out of the way of the thrown so he was being forced to sit in it while it grew. Eventually the thrown stopped growing and Knuckles was actually sitting pretty comfortably on it before saying "I think its because I'm the guardian of the Master Emerald."

Amy shrugged "Or it could just be that you're the only Echidna in here that isn't a ghost."

Knuckles climbed out of the thrown "Yeah, or that."

Suddenly Bunnie spoke up "We using this thing or what?"

Which caused Amy to say "Oh! Yes, right. Well from what I can tell this keyboard thing is for inputting coordinates into that crystal ball, which will then teleport anyone, anywhere they want.. Hopefully."

Sonic sighed "That didn't sound to confident."

"And you have any other idea what that thing does?"

Sonic raised his hands up in a defensive gesture "Just making an observation."

Rotor suddenly said "So long as it works, we don't have anything to fear about it."

Nicole then added "Unless it doesn't like electronics and fries me, and Bunnie's systems."

Knuckles walked over to Bunnie, who was still carrying Antoine, who was still carrying Nicole, and said to them "That could be a big problem, so maybe you two might have to stay behind."

The other two were about to say something when suddenly Bunnie's feet began to get encased in crystal, and it wasn't stopping there, it just continued to crawl up her legs slowly. Knuckles quickly grabbed onto Antoine and pulled him out of Bunnie's arms as the crystal reached her abdomen, she tried to free herself from the crystals covering her but she just couldn't. That's when a stalactite came out of the ceiling of the room and touched the top of laptop Nicole's head, her screen turned off and she went silent right as Bunnie's entire body was finally covered in crystal, Knuckles carefully set Antoine down and was about to punch Bunnie out of the crystal when suddenly there was a quick flash of blue light before she suddenly was able to move again. Her body was still covered in crystal, but she could move, and talk again "What just happened?!"

Suddenly a figure come out of the ground and it began to change into the shape of Nicole and she too yelled that same question out. Knuckles stared at the two of them before saying "I- I don't know.. But the sooner we send you guys to Metropolis, the sooner we can leave this weird temple."

Sonic nodded before Amy started to hesitantly type away at the rune keyboard. Knuckles walked over to her and asked "You know what they say?"

Amy shook her head "No. Not really, but some of them look very similar to some the runes the ancient people of Apotos used long ago.. And they even look similar to ancient Shamarian hieroglyphs as well."

Sonic then said "We are just learning a whole lot about your species Knux."

Knuckles nodded and sighed "But we don't have time to learn much else, right now we have to save the world."

Just then Amy imputed the very last coordinate into the keyboard and the crystal ball began to glow. Everyone quickly scurried onto the stone platform, all except for Amy and Knuckles, before that platform suddenly began to rise up out of the ground and up towards the bottom of the ball. As they got closer a hole appeared in the part of the ball they were heading towards, and once they connected with it there was a bright flash of red light, and they disappeared, leaving Knuckles and Amy alone in the strange crystal temple hidden underneath Angel Island. Knuckles then looked over to Amy and said "You think you can get a message to our fleet?"

Amy nodded "I know I can."

Knuckles smiled "Good, tell them to set the city ablaze."

Amy also smiled "You got it!"

* * *

1:22 A.M. West Side Island, Metropolis Central Tower.

* * *

The screams of agony from Infinite as well as the sound of electrical crackles and pops were the only things that could be heard throughout the room. Which wasn't a problem for Eggman, because he loved to watch Infinite scream out in agony as Eggman used the Phantom Ruby's own properties against him. Eggman had programmed the ruby to only be able to fuse with Infinite, but Eggman could also use that against him, and thankfully it didn't drain any power away from its Virtual Reality abilities. Infinite tried to plead with Eggman to let him out of the restraints Eggman had forced him into, those same restraints had forced Infinite into an X shape due to his limbs being spread out in that way, and he was also being held in midair by them. Red electrical energy arched off of the Phantom Ruby and slashed across Infinite's metal mask, which caused his entire head to be hit by an electrical shock due to its conductive nature.

Other arches of energy slashed across his body and he continued to scream out in agony "Please! I only meant to avenge the destruction of your ship! I only took the Egg Hawk so that I would survive the explosion! AGH! PLEASE!"

Eggman shook his head "The fact that you couldn't defeat Sonic and his counterpart with my Egg Carrier's weapon systems is worthy of punishment.. Along side the fact you never gained permission to fly my Egg Hawk, and on top of all of that! You let the pint-sized Sonic damage it!"

Infinite let out another cry of agony before yelling out "He was faster than I had expected!"

Eggman glared at Infinite "Are you saying that my plane was to slow?"

He then held up a remote and pointed it at Infinite, Eggman's thumb hovered over a button that would magnify the amount of pain, but Infinite quickly yelled out "NO! I WASN'T! AAGGGH!"

Eggman lowered his hand "I thought so."

He then stared at Infinite for a moment longer before pressing a button that stopped the pain, and it also released Infinite from his restraints. He fell onto the metal floor of the room and once he got up onto his hands and knees, he placed his hand on top of his mask and felt the burn marks on it. He then attempted to stand up when Eggman suddenly said "Tsk, tsk, don't get up. Not yet, your punishment isn't over."

Eggman then ripped off Infinite's mask and threw it to the floor, he stared down at the Jackal's naked face which had a few burn marks on it. Infinite wanted desperately to lash out at Eggman for revealing his face, but in fear of going threw more pain, he didn't. Eggman then said "You'll get a new mask, fresh and clean. But, before we do that, here's a gift your you."

Eggman then stuck his hand into a pant pocket and pulled out a picture. He then tossed it at Infinite and Eggman began to walk away, kicking Infinite's mask away as he did. Infinite picked up the picture and stood up while looking at it, the picture showed him, along side people he wanted desperately to forget, people who died for him simply because he didn't stand up for them. He crumpled up the picture before tossing it away, he looked over to Eggman as he left the room before stomping over to his mask, he picked it up and stared down at ti. Yet another symbol of failure that was pinned to his back, along side the still living Sonic, and the person he had become, his grip on the mask grew tighter and tighter as he glared down at it before throwing it to the ground. He then began to stomp his right foot on it, the mask caved in slightly each time Infinite's foot hit the mask, three stomps latter and the glass lens of the mask shattered, he then lifted his foot up, and stomped it back down hard, causing the helmet to break completely.

He stood there taking in labored breaths of anger, glaring down at the remains of his old mask. Before slowly removing his foot from the pile of metal and glass, suddenly he heard Cubot say to him "Special delivery for... Pile of disappointment?"

Infinite looked over to the yellow robot and saw that it was holding a replica of his mask. He grabbed onto it and yanked it out of Cubot's hands, when he did he saw that there was a sticky tag stuck to its side, and that "pile of disappointment" line was written in Eggman's hand writing. He tore the tag off before sticking it on his face, he then began to stomp out of the room while Cubot followed behind him slightly. Meanwhile, Eggman stared out of the windows of the top of his tower when Orbot came into the room and said to him "Your sensors have picked something up in the edges of the city sir."

Eggman sighed and rolled his eyes before turning around and looking at Orbot, he then said "What is it?"

Orbot shrugged "Not sure, its just concerning."

Suddenly there were several green flashes in the air and the remains of the Resistance fleet appeared in midair. The ships then began to fire at the city, and Eggman yelled out "What?! The Resistance again?! I bombed that island down to the ocean! How are they still alive!?"

Orbot hesitantly said "S- Sir, your second missile never hit the island.. It was stopped by a Chaos force field."

Eggman spun around and glared down at Orbot "Rgggghhhh!... No matter, I can still crush them.. Tell Infinite to met me on top of the tower, we'll finish Sonic off there."

Orbot nodded as they both left the room. Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Sonic appeared inside of a building in a bright flash of red light, he looked around his surroundings and realized he was alone, so that teleporter probably scatted the Resistance all around the city. He then quickly boosted forwards as the voice of Knuckles some how came over his earpiece "We're fighting to get our world back now. Don't stop, don't look back! Just focus on the task ahead no matter what!"

Suddenly, a line of Egg Pawns appeared in front of him and he boosted right through them before jumping over a gap in between what was apparently the fifth floor of the building. Once he landed on the other side he boosted forwards and through several more Egg Pawns before coming out some kind of fire exit and onto the roof of the building, while up there he looked around and saw the Resistance fleet raining bombs all over the city, fires peppered across the tops of skyscrapers, and Eggman's own fleet had yet to arrive. He grinned before saying "Cool, the fleet's here!"

Knuckles chuckled "Sure is! Even without that staff I can still command the Master Emerald's energy!"

Sonic then jumped off of the building and began to skydive down to a highway bellow, while he fell panels in the highway opened up and missiles fired up at him. Sonic dodged each of the missile before landing on the ground and running forwards, as he did the voice of Knuckles said "If we capture Eggman, we win. Find out where he is at Sonic!"

Rouge then said "We'll provide as much cover as we can."

Sonic grinned "Alright! Chasing Eggman is what I do best! I'll track him down in no time!"

He then turned a corner and began to boost forwards while Egg Walks ran away from him. He crashed right through the long legged robots and turned another corner where he saw that the end of the bridge hadn't been completed yet. He quickly jumped up into the air and Homing Attacked into a chain of Nebulas that lead him up to the side of a building, he landed on the building and began to wall jump from one to the other before landing on the roof of a skyscraper. He ran forwards and quickly Homing Attacked into three Egg Pawns that were in his way, and when he landed guard rails came out of the roof and stopped him from moving, suddenly a square section of the roof lifted up and three digital arrows appeared on the side of the little square he was standing on. It then suddenly sped forwards without warning and Sonic lurched back due to that, once it came to a stop at a side of a building he quickly jumped up and scaled it before climbing up onto the roof and running forwards again.

He reached the end of the building and quickly jumped off of it and onto a highway that was literally right next to the end of the roof. He quickly boosted forwards and through a line of Egg Pawns in front of him, he then quickly hopped off of the highway and onto a the rails of a midair monorail. He grinded across the rail as it snaked around what looked like a broadcasting tower before Sonic quickly jumped off of it and onto a highway, he then boosted forwards and through Egg Walks that attempted to run from him, while he ran he said "There is a big battle going on."

Amy then said "It's okay. We can hold on for now."

Knuckles then added "Our other forces are on the move too. We can pull this off!"

Sonic then boosted forwards as he ran across a highway that snaked through a very densely built area of the city. He crashed through anything that got in his way, wither it be the remains of mechanical trees, robots, or even chunks of the metal buildings, he slowly began to approach a tower when Amy said "Be careful! I'm detecting Eggman just up ahead!"

Sonic grinned before jumping up into the air and using his momentum to fling himself up onto the side of the tower, he then scaled it and once he reached the top he was greeted by the sight of Eggman in his Egg Mobile, with Orbot and Cubot hovering next to him on either side. Eggman crossed his arms over his chest as he said "Welcome Sonic. Glad you could make it to your funeral!"

While Sonic squinted an eye in confusion Tails landed on the roof behind him. Eggman then suddenly stood up in his Egg Mobile and he thrust his hand out before yelling "Infinite! Do it!"

The masked Jackal descended from the air surrounded by his red aura. He then held his hand out and said "Take this!"

A small sphere of purple energy came out of his hand and it hovered over the center of the building's roof. The sound of electrical like crackles and pops could be heard from it and Sonic said "What is that?"

Suddenly the sphere expanded to a larger, yet still rather small, size. Eggman then sat back down on his leather seat in the Egg Mobile "Har-har. That my spiky little frenemy, is Null-Space."

While Orbot and Cubot cowered away from the sphere Sonic said "Null-Space?"

Eggman nodded "It's a little something the Phantom Ruby cooked up, a closed-off space where absolutely nothing exists! Think of it as.. An evil version of the Special Zone."

Sonic motioned for Tails to hid behind some kind of machinery that was on the roof as Eggman said "Goodbye, Sonic, my soon-to-be-eradicated nemesis. Enjoy all the nothing!"

The Egg Mobile began to lift higher up into the air as Eggman waved goodbye, he closed the hover craft's retractable glass top, and Infinite held his hand out again. Right as the Egg Mobile blasted up into the air, a sphere of red energy shot out of Infinite's hand and he too blasted away, suddenly the Null-Space portal expanded greatly, purple energy arched off of it and hit anything around it, and at the same time it also began to suck anything, and everything, in which also included Sonic. He attempted to resist its pull but it was just to great for him, he lost his footing and began to get sucked in, when suddenly Rookie grabbed onto Sonic's hand and kept him from being sucked in thanks to him using his grappling hook as an anchor. Sonic looked up to Rookie "Buddy! Don't! You'll be sucked in too!"

Rookie groaned slightly as the suction of the portal began to affect him too "I'm.. Not.. Losing.. Someone.. Else.. HERE!"

Suddenly his grappling hook's wire snapped and they both were sucked into the portal, which sealed shut right as it swallowed them whole. Tails fell to the top of the roof as the suction of the portal came to a stop, while came up to his feet he said "But we destroyed the Phantom Ruby's power source!"

Suddenly the voice of Eggman said "Tsk, tsk. Since you ALWAYS destroy the power source of my weapons, I decided to learn from my mistakes."

The Egg Mobile descended from the sky and Eggman made its glass roof retract as he said "I had a back-up power sources created all over the world. Not only that, but the Death Egg wasn't even one of them! In fact, it was actually a Phantom Ruby construct itself!"

Infinite descended from the sky and he held his hand out. But Eggman said "No.. Let him live, that way he can try to free Sonic and go mad while doing the impossible."

Infinite lowered his hand before him and the Doctor flew away from the building. Tails quickly scrambled over to the spot where the Null-Space portal was and he quickly pulled out his Mini-Miles-Electric and tried to figure out someway to reopen the portal again, while at the same time Eggman's fleet arrived over the city and began to fight off the Resistance's own fleet of ships.


	27. N U L L-S P A C E

Never A.P. Nowhere, Null-Space.

* * *

Sonic and Rookie both flailed around as they fell through a strange purple void of cubes and net-like grids that stretched upwards and downwards for infinity. Until suddenly, that infinity suddenly came to a stop when they both hit an ocean of dark purple cubes that sounded like shards of glass when the cubes moved or were touched. Sonic pulled himself up to the surface of the cube-ocean, he looked around and saw that Rookie wasn't up there with him, he quickly plunged back under and after a second or so, he pulled himself and Rookie up to the surface. Rookie readjusted his glasses and headset before saying "Wh- Where are we?"

Sonic looked around their surroundings before answering "Null-Space, an inter-dimensional prison."

Rookie was about to say something when they both saw the cubes in front of them move up as if something was swimming underneath its surface. Suddenly the cube-ocean began to lift upwards, taking Sonic and Rookie with them, those cubes then came together into a large road that stretched forwards for ever, and backwards forever. Sonic sighed before saying "Looks like the only thing we can do is.. Run."

Rookie nodded before they both began to run forwards. They just kept running, and running, and running, the pattering of their feet against the cube road was the only thing that either of them could hear. That's when suddenly something flew over head, it was made of the same dark purple cubes as the road, but it had the shape of someone they knew, that some one was Infinite. The cube-Infinite turned around in midair and stared down at Sonic and Rookie, the blue Hedgehog then said "Hey! This isn't where we were meant to end up! You think you can send us home?"

The cube-Infinite then raised its hand and a tendril of purple cubes suddenly appeared next to the road and tried to swipe at them. which caused Sonic to say "Guess not."

He quickly jumped over it while Rookie slid under it, once they returned to running the cube-Infinite thrust both its hands down and the road immediately changed. It split into two separate roads, Rookie went down the left, and Sonic went down the right. While he ran forwards purple cubes wized by the sides of Sonic's head and even the cube-Infinite dissolved into its building blocks and flew along side the other cubes. Eventually those cubes came together into a building straight ahead of him, and the road he was on was leading him right towards it. Sonic skid to a halt inside of the large build made up of purple cubes, which actually kinda looked like a football stadium now that Sonic was inside of it. Suddenly the voice of Infinite could be heard all around him "Tell me.. What is it that you fear?"

But it didn't really sound like the real Infinite's voice, it sounded more like it was some strange distorted version of it, like Null-Space was mimicking it. Sonic shrugged "Don't have any fears. It'd give Eggman an advantage, and that'd be no good."

"Hmm... You say that, yet buried deep within one's psyche. There lives their greatest fear. Wither that someone knows about it or not."

Sonic mockingly yawned and stretched out his arms before saying "Well.. Monologues scare me, take to long and they feel so slow."

"No... That is sarcasm.. Something someone uses to hide the truth.. Let's see, what would truly be your fear?"

The floor of the building shook before the mimicked voice of Infinite said "How about something that truly does make you slow down.. Water."

Suddenly cracks began to form in the floor of the building and water began to rush through it at unbelievable speed. In just four seconds the entire building had been filled to its halfway point, and Sonic struggled to stay above the surface of it as well. The water rose to a point Sonic could touch the roof, when suddenly the mimicked Infinite voice said "No.. Most everyone is afraid of water in some way, wither it be drowning, the creatures that live in it, or the unknown of it.. That isn't your true fear."

The water suddenly disappeared and Sonic fell to the cube floor. Groaning slightly as he picked himself up the mimicked voice then said "Instead of trying to find your current fear.. Maybe we should start with your earlier ones."

Suddenly, the sound of sirens could be heard all around him. Red lights flashed from the ceiling before a hatch opened up in the center of the room and the Death Egg Robot lifted out of it. Sonic took an attacking stance as he glared up at the giant mech, it reared its hand back before the mimicked voice said "No.. You've over come that.. But what about this?"

The Death Egg Robot dissolved into cubes before transforming into something else. It changed into the massive Biolizard, the prototype Ultimate Life-form, the lizard roared at Sonic who just said "Dude, I'm not scared of the Biolizard, or even the Finalhazard! That'd be a Shadow thing."

The mimicked voice of Infinite then said "True, true... Heheh, then what about.. This?"

The Biolizard dissolved into cubes, and those cubes flew by Sonic and landed somewhere behind him. A second latter and a voice Sonic had hoped to never hear again said to him "Are you afraid of me?"

Sonic spun around and glared at Neo Metal Sonic. The robot held its arms out and said "I am the closest thing to a perfect Metal Sonic the Doctor created. I am a reflection of yourself, a vision of what might happen if you let yourself become consumed by a single need. And in my case, that single need, was to beat you. To prove that I was better than you in every way."

Neo then suddenly lunged at Sonic, but the blue Hedgehog quickly jumped out of its way and landed on the ground in a crouch. He looked over to Neo as it turned around and faced Sonic, it then quickly lunged at him again but Sonic jumped out of its way again and kicked the back of its head as it passed by. Neo hit the ground and tumbled across it before it jumped back up it its feet, using its jet to do that. Sonic grinned cockily "Yeah, that may have been Neo's quark. But the fact you said 'prove that I was better than you' shows that you aren't actually Neo. He thinks, he is the real Sonic, he would've called me the fake Sonic."

Neo clenched its metal fists together before it began to charge up its chest reactor. Sonic quickly ran at it and he jumped at it, he hit his feet against the robot's forehead causing the robot to bend backwards and to fire its beam up into the air, and right through the roof. Sonic jumped off of Neo's head and landed on the ground as it grumbled to itself before dissolving into purple cubes. The voice of the mimicked Infinite said "Fine, you may not be afraid of Neo Metal Sonic. But what about.."

Suddenly, the purple cubes that were once Neo, became Infinite and it said "What about me?"

Sonic chuckled slightly before saying "Okay wow.. So, Null-Space was created by the Phantom Ruby, the ruby is attracted to, and is being controlled by, Infinite. And he also has a massive ego, so that means Infinite can transfer his ego into creations of the Phantom Ruby! Wow, learn something new everyday."

The fake Infinite grumbled before lunging at Sonic. The blue Hedgehog attempted to jump out of its way, but it quickly spun around in midair and kicked Sonic in his face and sent him flying halfway across the building. Sonic tumbled across the ground as the fake Infinite said "You may try to mock me.. But I know the truth, you fear me, because I am the only person in the world that has beat you in battle. I scare you, because of my ability to create anything with the Phantom Ruby. And you know, that hardly anyone has survived an encounter with me, and you fear that you will join those ranks."

Sonic glared at the fake Infinite as he tried to stand up. But the fake Infinite held its hand out and fired a laser at Sonic. Rookie ran across an empty purple cube road, nothing was attacking him, nothing was trying to talk to him, there wasn't even any kind of sound at all. That's when he heard the sound of a boom over to his right. He quickly looked over there and saw a stadium like building that had a large hole in the roof, and Rookie bet that was where Sonic was. He quickly jumped off of the road he was on before using his grappling hook to fling himself over to it, what he had grabbed onto, he wasn't really sure. He then landed on the purple cube roof and ran over to the hole before looking through it, and inside of the building he saw what had to be a fake Infinite fighting Sonic, and the faker was winning. Fake Infinite held his hand out and a sphere of energy shot at Sonic, who quickly jumped out of its way, sadly the sphere exploded when it hit the ground so Sonic was blasted back by its shock wave.

The fake Infinite hovered over Sonic, it then held its hand up and was about to fire an energy bolt at the Hedgehog. When Rookie suddenly jumped through the hole, Wispon aimed at its head, yelling to draw its attention away from Sonic and onto him. Rookie quickly pulled the Wispon's trigger and the weapon's fire hit the faker's mask immediately. Rookie then also hit his feet against the fake Infinite's arms and quickly pinned him to the ground as well, all the while he continued to blast the faker's face with his Wispon. Cries of distorted agony came from it as it writhed around in pain, at the same time Sonic stood up off of the ground and watched silently as Rookie finally stopped blasting the faker. Once the flames stopped Rookie could see that the entire front of its face had melted off, and it had also stopped moving a second or two before Rookie stopped firing.

He stepped off of the fake Infinite and faced Sonic who said "Thanks for the save."

Rookie nodded before he grappled the both of them out of the building, and onto the nearby cube road. While they both ran down the road Sonic looked over to Rookie and said "Let's head back. Everyone is waiting for us!"

Rookie then said "But how are we getting back?"

The blue Hedgehog grinned "I think I got an idea."

He then grabbed onto Rookie's hand and they both blasted forwards, at the same time Sonic yelled out "Double! Boost!"

An aura of blue energy surrounded the both of them before they boosted forwards. A tiny white light slowly flickered the life in the distance while they ran, and at the same time tendrils of red cubes appeared on the road and attempted to hit them off, but their speed was to great for them. While they blasted right through the tendrils Sonic yelled out "We've got this! Keep it up Rookie!"

The light started to get brighter "Nothing can contain the two of us at max power!"

It continued to get brighter and brighter as they ran "Not even Null-Space!"

That light got so bright that Rookie had to close his eyes out of fear that he'd go blind. That's when he heard the sound of a loud boom, followed by him being lifted off of his feet as a weightless, yet warm, feeling entered his body.

* * *

1:27 A.M. West Side Island, Metropolis.

* * *

Tails typed away at a touch screen keyboard on his Mini-Miles-Electric, and at the same time he said "Come on, come on! There's got to be a way to bring them back!"

While he did that he heard the faint sound of a tiny boom over his head. He looked up and saw nothing, but another boom that was only a little louder than before could be heard. The sound of continuous booms filled his ears as they steadily got louder and louder, until suddenly he felt the air be filled with an energetic energy. He quickly scrambled away from the center of the roof of the building before hiding behind some machinery on it, right before there was a sonic boom, and the Null-Space portal reopened by itself. Sonic and Rookie both shot out of it and they flew through the air, heading deeper into the city, Tails smiled as he watched two two fly off before he too lifted up into the air and flew away from the building as well.

Sonic and Rookie then both landed on a monorail and grinded across it before Sonic said into his earpiece "Sup everyone? I missed this place."

The two of them quickly jumped off of the rail and ran across the side of a building as Knuckles' voice said "What happened Sonic?! You two just up and disappeared!"

They both quickly jumped off of the building and landed inside of a monorail boarding platform, and as they both jumped onto another set of rails Sonic said "Nothing happened, literally. Now let's track down Eggman!"

He then grabbed onto Rookie's hand before boosting forwards on the rail. It snaked threw the city, it went in and out of buildings, it went everywhere, sadly it didn't have an end so Sonic and Rookie both jumped up into the air and Homing/Wire Attacked into an unsuspecting Nebula that allowed them to land on another set of rails before Sonic boosted them both forwards again. Suddenly they both heard the sound of a loud explosion over head and when they looked up they saw one of the Resistance's ships falling out of the sky, right towards them. Rookie quickly jumped up off of the rail, taking Sonic with him, as the ship collided with the section of rail that they were once on, Rookie then used his grappling hook to pull them both onto the roof of the ship before Sonic boosted them both forwards.

Once they reached the end of the crashing ship they both jumped off of it and landed on half glass, half metal, roof of a building. Suddenly Egg Pawns were dropped around them by drone planes and Rookie looked over to Sonic, who nodded at him, before the red Wolf quickly sprung into action. He fired his Burst Wispon at the robots to their left, while Sonic Homing Attacked into the robots to their right. Once the left and right groups were destroyed, they both Homing/Wire Attacked into the robots in front of, and behind, them before Rookie used his grappling hook to pull them both up to a closely neighboring skyscraper. Once on the roof they both quickly ran to its edge before jumping off and landing on another monorail, Sonic then boosted them both forwards again and the rail snaked around a circular tower.

While they grinned Sonic said into his earpiece "How is the battle going?"

Amy then responded with "We've got them on the ropes! If our fleet can keep the upper hand, we should things under control soon."

The voice of Rouge then said "You're gonna miss out on the fun if you don't hurry you two."

Sonic grinned before they both jumped off of the rail and onto a building that had a metal bridge connecting it to the building next to it. Sonic then quickly Air Boosted forwards, taking out the Egg Pawns on the roofs, and Rookie finished off the remaining robots before catching up to Sonic. They both then jumped off of the second building and onto a monorail, yet again, Sonic boosted them both forwards. The rail they were on also snaked around a circular building, but unlike last time, the rail came to an abrupt end so they both had to jump off of it, luckily a line of Nebulas allowed them to Homing/Wire Attack up to the roof of the circular building. Once on the roof Sonic grabbed onto Rookie's hand and they both boosted through a line of Egg Pawns that had been dropped in front of them by drone planes.

After they took out the last Pawn they skid to a halt and Rookie used his grappling hook to pull them both up to another set of monorail. They boosted along it again as it snaked through the sky, and around a broadcasting tower. Much like the last rail, it came to an abrupt end which forced them to jump off of it, but this time Rookie used his grappling hook to fling them over the pointed top of the broadcasting tower and down to another set of rails. They boosted forwards as the rail lead them towards a complex of various buildings all connected together by catwalks, bridges, and even monorail tracks, which had to be where Eggman was hiding, the complex just wreaked of that special, baldy mcnosehair smell. The rail came to a stop inside of some kind of junction and the two of them quickly jumped off of it right before Egg Pawns came out of various doors in the junction.

Rookie quickly got to work taking care of the left Pawns, while Sonic took out the right, they then worked together to take out the back and front Pawns before running up a set of stairs and up onto the roof of the junction. Rookie grappled them both up to an under-construction platform, where they were met by Egg Pawns, and Egg Walkers, the tall robots fired missiles at the two of them while the Pawns attempted to fire their blaster arms at the two of them. Rookie quickly began to make short work of the Pawns while Sonic Homing Attacked into the Egg Walkers, once the robots were finished Rookie grabbed onto Sonic's hand before grappling him up to the top of the complex of buildings.

Orbot idly tapped its first finger against the back of the Egg Mobile while it stared out at the city that was under attack from the Resistance. When suddenly Rookie and Sonic landed on the roof of the building in behind of the Egg Mobile, Eggman, and Infinite. Orbot quickly spun around and began to tap Eggman's shoulder as he said "Excuse me? Boss."

Eggman tried his best to ignore Orbot, until he finally got fed up and looked over to his robotic assistant. But he caught the sight of Sonic and Rookie out of the corner of his eye. He spun around and smacked Orbot away with the back of his hand as he did, he then slammed his hands against the back of the Egg Mobile before yelling out "What?! It can't be! It's impossible to get out of the Phantom Ruby's Null-Space!"

Infinite simply glared down at the other two with his only visible eye, slightly impressed, yet still slightly annoyed. Sonic chuckled before saying "Maybe by myself, but I had a little help from my friend. Something you wouldn't understand, since you have no friends!"

Eggman growled at Sonic before saying "This changes nothing! Doctor Eggman will have the last laugh!"

While he yelled he swung his hand around and smacked Orbot's head several times. He then turned back around and sat down on the Egg Mobile's leather seat. He grabbed onto the hover craft's controls before making the craft's glass roof slid shut, knocking Orbot away from the Mobile when it did. Eggman then flew away and as Infinite and Eggman's two assistant robots flew after him Sonic said "Maybe he'd have more friends if he didn't talk about himself in the third person."

Rookie chuckled slightly before saying "Or maybe if he didn't yell so much!"

Sonic also chuckled before he nodded in agreement. That's when the voice of Knuckles came over their earpieces "From what little remains of our spy network, we've found out that Eggman's moving forwards with his plan. Fast, which probably means we have less than an hour before it goes down."

The voice of Shadow then said "There's no more time. We have to break into the Imperial Tower now."

Silver's voice then said "Indeed, this is it... Our last opportunity to bring peace back into the world."

While Tails landed on the roof behind Rookie and Sonic he said "But... When the battle ends, there's a chance Blue will be sent back to his world.."

Sonic turned to face his young Fox friend "And the problem is?"

Tails sighed "I don't even know if he'll survive it, or if that'll actually happen.. And if he doesn't survive, then his world will be without a Sonic and their Eggman will be able to win like our's.. Only worse... And if he isn't sent back, then he'll be stuck here until we can figure out how to send him back safely, and that may take years, decades, centuries even.. I should've thought about this more! I should've come up with fall backs and safety nets of something went wrong! I should've-"

Suddenly Sonic knelt down in front of Tails and put his hand on his friend's shoulder "Hey! Don't worry! I'm sure everything'll be fine!.. You remember when we got stuck in Blaze's world?"

Tails nodded before Sonic continued "Dude you made a boat that could send us back to our world the second time we got stuck there! I'm sure that if he get's stuck here you'll figure something out."

Tails then asked "But what if he dies during the travel?"

Sonic sighed "Sometimes.. We can't worry about the worse case, instead, we have to think of the best case.. And that best case would be us taking down tall-dark-and-masked which will send Blue back to his world safe and sound."

Tails nodded as he whipped a tear off of the bottom of his eye "Y- Yeah, you're right.. Alright, let's do this."

Sonic grinned "That's the spirit!"

He then stood up when suddenly there was a bright green flash of light over to the three of them's left. When they looked over to it they saw Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Silver, the Chaotix, Rouge, Tangle, Rotor, Sally, a decrystallized Bunnie, a standing Antoine, Blue, and an Egg Pawn. Sonic stared at the robot before saying "What's with the Pawn?"

Knuckles, who was back in his tribal getup, looked over to the robot and said "Oh.. Nicole's taken it as her temporary body."

Suddenly the voice of Nicole came out of it "And I don't like it!"

Sally was about to say something when everyone heard the sound of a Phantom Ruby pulse, followed by a very bright flash of red light to everyone's left. They all quickly looked over to the source of the light and saw a massive wasteland of rock and stone sitting behind the complex of buildings they were standing on. Not only that, but in the center of the wasteland was a heavily fortified tower. Sonic inspected the new sight in front of him before saying "What is that thing?"

Knuckles stepped forwards and answered with "It looks like some kind of heavy duty mining field.. Look!"

He pointed to a large trench cut out in the stone ground "Eggman's be drilling it up for who knows how long to supply his war machines with their required minerals."

Vector sighed "Great! Each time we think we've got Eggman cornered he pulls something right from underneath our noses!"

Blue looked up to the much taller Crocodile "And each time he did that, we smashed it! So what's the difference now?"

Amy pointed up to the Egg Fleet, which was hovering over the Imperial Tower "All of his forces are gathered around it and waiting for us as we speak."

Knuckles grinned before turning around and facing his group of Resistance fighters "Well, if they're waiting for us. Then let's not make it a long wait, come on guys, we've got some business to finish!"

Sonic nodded before they all ran over to the side of the complex and jumped off of it, at the same time the remaining members of the Resistance's army began to charge towards the tower, while what remained of their fleet began to fight against Eggman's own fleet over the mined wasteland that surrounded the Imperial Tower, Eggman's last base above, underneath, or on, the planet.


	28. Climb the Imperial Tower

1:32 A.M. West Side Island, Eggman's Minefield, Outside the Imperial Tower.

* * *

Clouds had gathered in the air, it felt as if it were going to rain, but that didn't matter to Eggman's army, or the Resistance, this was going to be their final battle. Knuckles' group of Resistance fighters joined together with the main bulk of soldiers as soon as they hit the ground. They all ran forwards as one massive crowd, and at the same time Knuckles yelled out "This is our last chance! Give it everything you've got!"

Suddenly hundreds of Phantom Clones of Zavok, the unaltered Chaos, Metal Sonic, and Shadow all appeared in front of the Resistance along side thousands of Eggman's robots and they all began to charge at the Resistance. Which only caused Knuckles to raise his fist up into the air and to also yell out "Let's go!"

Everyone let out cries of enthusiasm before they all sprinted forwards. Egg Pawns aimed their blaster arms at the Resistance and began to fire at them while Buzz Bombers flew over head and dropped bombs on them, at the same time Egg Tanks fired several RPGs at them while the Egg Walks continued to charge forwards, hoping to trample the soldiers. The Phantom Clones then also entered into the fight as the Resistance's soldiers began to fire back, Knuckles charged at a clone of Zavok and yelled out "Take this!"

Before jumping up and uppercutting the Phantom Clone. Shadow used his rocket shoes to blast through a crowd of Phantom Clones, and periodically he'd jump up into the air and throw Chaos Spears at any enemies that were near him. Silver used his telekinesis to lift anything that was in front of him up off of the ground and up into the air, he'd then quickly throw them far away before moving onto the next group. The Chaotix worked together to fight off anything that got in their way, Espio tossed ninja stars and kuni at any enemies near him, Vector scoped up anything that would fit into his mouth before crushing it with his powerful jaw, he'd then envelop what ever was left of them in a bubble of bubble-gum before blowing then at a near by enemy, the bubble would pop and cover the enemy in gum, as well as bits of its fellow robo/clone soldiers. While the other two did that, Charmy simply flew around an enemy before stinging them with his stinger, then he'd move on, nothing to fancy, nothing to complicated, just a quick sting before running away.

Amy used her large Piko Hammer to destroy anything in her path, while Rouge used her strong legs to kick through opponents that dared to look at her wrong. Sonic quickly boosted through a line of Phantom Clones and began to run toward Infinite, who was overlooking the battle in front of him. Sonic skid to a halt in front of Infinite as he lowered out of the air "Hey Infinite. Long time no see! Did you miss me?"

While the rest of Sonic's fellow Resistance fighters caught up with him Infinite said "Why yes, I did. I've been looking forward to finishing you and your annoying friends!"

The Resistance caught up with Sonic only for Infinite to let out a massive Phantom Ruby pulse that blasted everyone back. Infinite chuckled as everyone stood up off of the cracked stone ground "I trust you're all ready for oblivion? If you're not... Oh well."

Suddenly, he heard the sound of rapid gunfire to his right followed by two blue lasers being fired at his face, which he quickly dodged. He then looked over to his right and so did the Resistance, and what they saw made them gasp out in surprise. When Eggman's army and the Resistance first clashed together, the Elite Egg Force all charged along side their fellow robots. Each of the EEF made quick work out of any soldier that got in their way, especially EEF-1, who used his unlimited arsenal of weapons stored within him to take down all that came his way. That's when the EEF heard the sound of a Phantom Ruby pulse go off to their right, they all glanced over their quickly to make sure Infinite didn't need any assistance, luckily he seemed to be handling himself, so the EFF went back to slaughtering. All except for EEF-1, who just stared at a specific member of the Resistance, EEF-4 noticed that and said to 1 "Has your servos locked up?"

EEF-1 looked over to EEF-4 and said "Negative... I was simply-"

"Then there is no reason to be stalling behind. We must eradicate the Resistance for Eggman."

EEF-1's entire mind got caught on one single word "eradicate" it just repeated over and over again in his head. EEF-1's head twitched slightly as he said "E- E- Eradicate."

EEF-4 came to a stop before looking over to 1 and saying "Yes, eradicate the Resi-"

"No... Eradicate... Eggman's... ROBOTS!"

EEF-1 suddenly spun his entire upper body around and turned his hands into gatling guns at the same time. He then fired at EEF-4 who wasn't suspecting it, and due to that it was destroyed almost instantly. EEF-1 then turned his hands back to normal before reaching them up to his shoulders and clawing off the painted on EEF label, revealing his original red omega symbols. E-123 Omega then turned his hands back into gatling guns before yelling out "EXTERMINATE ALL THOSE THAT SEEK TO AID EGGMAN!"

He then began to fire at literally everything that moved, while various panels across his body opened up and missile fired out of them also aiming for everything. He began to stomp towards Infinite as he filled EEF-8 with led, once the robot fell to the ground dead Omega's eyes began to change from the EEF standard red, to his original blue eyes. They then began to glow bright before two lasers fired out of them and at Infinite's head, he dodged them before looking over to Omega along side the Resistance. They all gasped out in shock before Omega fired another two lasers at Infinite, who blocked them with the palms of his hands, he then growled out "What?! Who dares?!"

Infinite then landed on the ground as Omega finally came to a stop in full view of everyone "Target confirmed. Extermination mode initiated. Payback, INEVITABLE!"

Rouge quickly said "Omega! Y- You're back! You've joined us!? Awesome!"

Infinite grumbled "Is there no end to these annoying insects?"

He then faced the main members of the Resistance "I will burn your rebellion to ashes, and you along with it!"

He quickly surrounded himself with his red aura again before firing something up into the air. Everyone stared up into the sky, when suddenly there was a blast of bright light followed by the appearance of a massive sun that hovered over the top of either army's fleet of ships. Knuckles stared at the ball of burning plasma and gas before saying "Whoa, you've got to be kidding me. That's just a special effect, right?"

Tails grimly said "No, it's not! We're under the Phantom Ruby's control, it's a part of our reality!"

Espio clenched one of his fists "Unbelievable! What chance do we have against that?!"

Suddenly, the Egg Mobile along with Eggman flew over to the crowd of Resistance fighters. Its glass top slid open before Eggman talked over a built in loud system "The sun will fall upon you all. BOOM! THE END! Your pathetic lives are over."

Eggman then closed the top and flew back towards the Imperial Tower, and Infinite followed after him. Rookie stared up at the massive ball of flaming death that was slowly descending towards him and the Resistance. When suddenly the shard in his hand began to hum slightly, he lifted his hand up and took off his glove exposing the shard to the world again. At the same time Tails ran over to him, he saw the gemstone shard embedded in Rookie's hand and said "Whoa! It's reacting.. Wait, wait.. Eggman once said something about the Phantom Ruby prototypes, and I read something about a prototype that explodes when it was touched by an unknown materiel."

Rookie sighed and nodded "That's how I got this thing stuck in me."

Tails then said "Well, let me see it."

Rookie held his hand out for Tails and the Fox inspected the shard before saying "Yep, that's a prototype Phantom Ruby stone. And I bet you're the only one that can use it too. Maybe, if you use this, it can make that sun disappear."

Rookie stared up at the sun, then he looked back to his hand, before shoving it back into his glove. The red Wolf ran through the battle field, dodging in between Phantom Clones, and robots. He ducked underneath lasers and bullets, he jumped over fallen troops Eggman's or not, the place he was heading to. The Imperial Tower, he then finally reached the surroundings of the tower and as he ran the voice of Knuckles said "Grr... We made it so far. We were so close."

Rookie used his Wispon to destroy two Egg Pawns in his way before the voice of Espio said "This is truly world-shattering!"

The red Wolf then reached one of the various mining trenches that was far to deep for him to jump down. So he quickly jumped up into the air and quickly pulled the trigger of his Wispon, which caused a blast of fire to propel him up into the air and over to the other side of the trench. When he landed the voice of Vector said "Grr! Isn't there anything we can do?"

Rookie continued to run forwards once he landed. He was running towards an elevator lift that lead up into what looked like a refinery, sadly, he didn't have time to wait for the lift to go up into the refinery. He ran into the lift and jumped up to its emergency hatch before climbing up to the roof of it, he then jumped up to the lift wall and began to wall jump from one to the other. Once at the top, he jumped through a set of opening elevator doors and into the refinery, he also quickly took out the Egg Pawns that had tried to call the lift up to them. He then began to run through the refinery as Tails said "Maybe we can take out that sun by fighting fire with fire."

Rookie then ran up a flight of stairs that led to the refinery's second floor. At the same time Tails said to him "If you can get close enough to that sun, the prototype should cancel out the effect."

The red Wolf passed by a set of train tracks that was more than likely used by freight trains that would deliver the minerals in the refinery to the Imperial Tower. Rookie began to run across the tracks as Knuckles said "You'll get burnt to a crisp before then! Give it up Rookie! Fall back!"

Rookie shook his head "I'm sorry sir, but I can't do that.. I'm the only chance we have at stopping that sun."

Suddenly, the train tracks began to grow an electrical charge. Rookie quickly jumped up into the air and used his Wispon to propel himself through the air, he then landed on the side of the tracks as Egg Pawns were dropped in front of him by drone planes. Rookie quickly took them out with his Wispon before he continued to run along the tracks, which were leading him towards a refinery that was attached to the side of the Imperial Tower. He then reached the entrance of the refinery and saw that it was actually a lift large enough to hold a train, he then stared to wall jump up towards the top of the shaft, and as he did the voice of Silver sighed out "It's all up to Rookie now."

Tails then said "The chances of success are miniscule. It's a desperate long shot at best!"

Amy then added "Please, come back in one piece!"

Rookie then reached the top of the shaft and quickly jumped into the refinery. He ran through a hallway in the tower attachment when suddenly its roof opened up and a large blue beam was fired at the ground behind him from one of the ships in Eggman's fleet. Rookie quickly charged forwards as the laser chased after him, he saw that he was running towards another lift that lead up to somewhere he couldn't see. As soon as he reached the lift the beam stopped and Rookie was free to wall jump up the shaft. As he jumped up there he saw that there wasn't another set of doors, open or not, instead there was a hatch in the ceiling of the lift that could take Rookie who knows where. He jumped up to the hatch and grabbed onto its handle, his weight causing it to move and unlock the hatch, his weight also caused the hatch to swing open and almost cause him to fall back down the shaft, but he was able to keep his balance and to climb up through the hatch. Once he climbed through it he saw that he was on one of the roofs on the multi-layered Imperial Tower, he was half way up the tower at this point, and the only thing he could do now was keep running forwards.

As he ran that same ship from before fired a laser at the ground behind him as Eggman came over Rookie's headset "Mwa-haha! You think you can stop the sun? You'll burn up like a moth drawn to a flame! It's over."

Egg Pawns were dropped in front of Rookie but the red Wolf destroyed them with his Wispon as Knuckles said "You're a real soldier now Rookie. In fact, you're not even a rookie now. You can do this Gadget!"

The red Wolf grinned before climbing up the side of one of the higher roofs. Once Gadget reached the top of that roof the beam chasing after him began to get closer, and at the same time Amy said to him "Hang in there a bit longer!"

He climbed up the side of another roof and continued to run forwards, he was very close to the top of the tower at this point, and at the same time Vector said "Show everyone what you're made of!"

Gadget then climbed up another roof, he was almost there, he was almost at the top of the tower. Knuckles then said "C'mon, you can make it!"

The red Wolf glanced over his shoulder and saw that the beam was practically on him right now. He then looked forwards again as he saw that the next roof was so high up he could climb up it. But Gadget couldn't stop now, he quickly thrust his hand up into the air and used his grappling hook to pull himself up to the top of the tower as the ship that was trying to hit him with its beam was shot out of the air by one of the Resistance's ships. He landed on the top of the tower and almost slid off of it immediately, but he was able to grab onto the radio antenna that was sticking out of it, he used that antenna to regain his balance as he stared up at the ball of burning plasma and gas that was hovering over in the sky.

Infinite silently stared at the still raging fight between Eggman's army and the Resistance, he then said to himself "Make peace with your fate, because your lives are now over!"

He then flew up into the air as Eggman, who was inside of a bunker deep underground, stared at a monitor that showed him the surroundings of his base "Mwa-hahaha! Three."

Gadget slid off his right hands glove and stuffed it into one of his combat pouches. He stared at shard of the Phantom Ruby prototype that was in his hand, it had started to glow and hum a little while ago "Two."

He took in a deep breath before running forwards and jumping up and off of the top of the tower. He then fired off his grappling hook and it began to pull him towards the sun, he held his right hand out in front of him and the shard began to hum louder "One."

Everyone stared up at the ball of death that loomed over their heads, waiting desperately for Gadget to get rid of it, but nothing had happened yet. Tails silently said "Dustin?"

"ZERO!"

The sun began to glow brighter, forcing everyone to clover their eyes in fear that they might go blind. They felt as though they'd burn up before the sun even hit the ground, when suddenly. There was a loud boom, and the sun disappeared entirely, and a trail of crimson red energy fell from the sky and back down towards the Imperial Tower. Knuckles could hardly believe it "The sun! It's gone!"

The rest of the Resistance all cheered as Eggman stared at his monitor in astonishment "Wh- What?! What just happened?!"

He then saw out of the corner of his eye, that on another monitor something landed on one of the Imperial Tower's roofs. He then spun around and ran towards an elevator that almost instantly took him up to that roof. Gadget used his grappling hook to swing himself down to one of the tower's roofs and once his feet touched the roof he almost fell down instantly. He detached his hook and fell to his hands and knees as the shard in his hand fell apart into pieces, at the same time Eggman came out of a secret door in front of Gadget and he saw the remains of the shard "Impossible! I thought all the prototypes were destroyed!"

Tails landed next to Gadget and began to help him up as he said "A costly oversight Doctor. This is why I always check and double check, as any good scientist would."

Eggman clenched his fists before slamming his thumb against the button that made the lift lower him back down into the bunker, while it did that he mumbled to himself "I'm starting to rethink letting Infinite be apart of my empire, let along apart of my world."

Knuckles turned around to face his Resistance "This is the turning point guys! Time to press our advantage and kick major butt!"

He slammed his fists together as everyone let out cries of enthusiasm. He spun around and began to lead everyone the second charge towards Eggman's army, which looked to be very confused by everything that had just happened. And no one would have it any other way, as they charged, Knuckles looked over to Sonic and said to him "Clear out that trench!"

He pointed towards one of the larger trenches over to everyone's right "It pumping out enemy forces by the second! We need it shut down."

Sonic nodded "You got it!"

He then quickly broke off from the group before boosting towards the trench, at the same time Blue glanced up into the air and saw a large ship with several cannons attached to the bottom of it, that sight caused him to say "What is that thing?"

Amy looked up into the air as well and hissed out "It's the Eco Destroyer! We need that thing taken out of the air now!"

Blue grinned "Don't worry Amy, I got it covered."

He quickly Spin Dashed away, heading towards a large factor over to everyone's left. At the same time, the two apposing armies clashed again, but this time, the slaughter was on Eggman's Phantom Clones and robots. Because, the entirety of Team Dark was back together, and Omega had a grudge against Eggman even more now that he had been brainwashed by the Doctor.


	29. Take Down the Mortar Canyon

**SO THIS STORY NOW HAS OVER FIVE THOUSAND VIEWS.. DUDE'S, THIS IS MY MOST SUCCESSFUL STORY EVER. THANK YOU.**

 **K' PLEASE ENJOY THE ACTUAL CHAPTER.**

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Sonic boosted through a hoard of Egg Pawns as he continued to run towards the trench he had been instructed to take care of. At the same time the voice of Tails said "That must have used up a ton of energy. The Phantom Ruby should be weaker now! This is our only chance to defeat Infinite!"

Sonic then jumped down into the trench as he said "I'll tell you what, after I take out this trench thing, I'll take down Infinite."

Knuckles' voice then said "You got it. All ships, provide backup to Sonic and the others! Draw the enemy's attention and shield them from damage!"

Sonic boosted forwards crashing through Egg Pawns that were attempting to join in on the battle raging above ground. At the same time some of the Resistance's ships began to fly over the trench Sonic was in, and they began to fire down at the trench to add more confusion to Sonic's attack. He then reached the edge of a stone quarry before jumping up into the air and using various Nebulas that were hovering in the air to reach the other side of the large, circular, stone quarry. Once he reached the other side he boosted forwards, heading down the sloped ground as he did. He crashed through more Egg Pawns before entering into a train station that would probably be used to transport equipment, minerals, or any kind of ore in the trench. He jumped onto one of the rails and began to boost forwards as he grinded across it, as he did the voice of a Resistance ship captain said "All hands, maintain altitude and assemble a tight formation."

Sonic jumped off of the rail and onto the metal floor of the massive trench, he began to boost forwards crashing through Egg Walkers as that captain continued "Sonic's team is our last hope. We have to protect them!"

Sonic then ran into a large hanger with a closed roof, what it was used for, he had no clue. That was until he boosted forwards and launched himself up into the air, while in the air he saw that the massive hanger led down towards a massive underground mine filled with all sorts of equipment. Sonic grinned before quickly changing directions, he skydived down into the chasm as a Resistance soldier said "A huge enemy force is closing fast! We're falling under attack!"

That captain from before then said "Keep an eye on them! Don't let them get near! Every second we can buy for Sonic counts!"

Sonic skydived past wall mounted drills, various multi-legged transports that were climbing up the sides of the chasm, and even Buzz Bombers outfitted with sturdy legs to carry crates of ore and minerals up to the top of the chasm. Sonic quickly spun around in the air before landing on the ground of the mine, he then boosted forwards heading down a tunnel filled with mining Egg Pawns. He drifted around a corner in the tunnel before saying to himself "So what in here would be reactive enough to send this entire trench sky high?"

That's when he suddenly entered into a giant circular chasm inside of the mine. And sitting in the center of this chasm was a large reactor that was more than likely being used to power the trench and mine. Sonic grinned "That should do."

He then boosted along the pathway of the chasm that snaked around its circular sides. Once he reached the top path he quickly jumped up into the air and towards the reactor. He waited for the right moment to curl up into a Spin Ball so he could do maximum damage, he finally reached that moment and he Homing Attacked right through it. Once he burst out the other end the reactor began to explode behind him as he ran down another tunnel that was leading him upwards, and hopefully towards the surface of the trench. He boosted forwards as the entire mine began to shake, and as sirens began to blare all around him, he then saw an Egg Pawn set off an explosive that blocked the exit of the tunnel Sonic was in. He clenched his fists tighter and closed his eyes before boosting right through the rock that was in his way.

He then came out onto the surface of the trench, he continued to run forwards, boosting through a hoard of Egg Pawns that had been waiting for him. He was a lot closer to the Imperial Tower now, and the scenery of the trench had changed pretty drastically, there were laser grids, turrets, and hundreds of buildings that were churning out robots every second. While Sonic continued to boost forwards a Resistance soldier said "Ship 3 took a direct hit to the bridge. They're falling apart! Ship 7 has been crippled by heavy fire!"

Suddenly, Sonic could hear the sound of a loud boom over head. And when he looked up he saw what he assumed to be Ship 3 falling towards him, he sped up and quickly out ran the crashing ship before it crushed him. The voice of the Resistance captain then said "Evacuate the flagship! All hands, abandon ship! Sorry Sonic. We've done all we can. Good luck out there!"

Sonic grinned "You did plenty already! Leave the rest to me!"

He then jumped over another large quarry as the ground began to shake. He looked down into the quarry and saw several explosions come out of its walls, Sonic then landed on the other side of the quarry and began to boost forwards again. As he did he crashed through hoards of evacuating robots, drone planes attempted to bomb Sonic and stop him from escaping the exploding trench. Speaking of the trench, a metal roof began to close over the top of the trench in what must've been an attempt at minimizing the damage of the explosion, not only that, but a large wall was slowly sealing shut in front of Sonic. He continued to boost forwards as the roof of the trench slid shut and as several large explosions erupted all around him, he jumped past the almost closed wall right before it actually slid shut. Once he landed on the ground he spun around and skid to a halt right before one massive explosion erupted from the entire trench, the ground shook as the everything inside of the trench went up in flames.

Once Sonic was done staring at his handy work, he turned around and saw that he was on a metal road that lead towards the Imperial Tower. Suddenly saw Infinite float down from the sky "Pathetic little Hedgehog. Even with the Phantom Ruby weakened, I still have enough power to smash you into blue jelly. I'll show you how outclassed you really are!"

Sonic rolled his eyes as he started to walk towards Infinite "I'm in a class all on my own! Time to put-up or shut up Infinite!"

He quickly sped forwards and Infinite mocked Sonic by motioning with his hand for Sonic to bring it on. Sonic boosted forwards as Infinite crossed his arms over his chest and began to float away from him, while saying "What would you like your epitaph to read? How about ' _Here lies the blue buffoon_ '?"

Infinite then thrust his hand out and fired a laser at Sonic, but the blue Hedgehog quickly jumped out of its way before boosting forwards again. At the same time he said "Why not ' _Here dozes the masked clown_ '? Might as well make it for the person who needs one, right?"

The masked Jackal growled at Sonic before snapping his fingers. Instantly purple cubes appeared in front of Sonic, and the blue Hedgehog quickly jumped over, slid under, and boosted by, all of them before quickly Homing Attacking into Infinite. The masked Jackal growled at Sonic yet again after he was hit by his Homing Attack, Infinite swiped his hand at Sonic and blasted the blue Hedgehog back with a shock wave that was colored a sort of see through red. Sonic hit the ground and quickly rolled onto his feet before boosting forwards again, the two of them then passed through a large passage in the bottom of the Imperial Tower that was used as a docking bay for mobile vehicles. While they passed through it Infinite made the Egg Pawns in there be picked up by a red aura, before being thrown at Sonic, the blue Hedgehog Homing Attacked into all of the incoming Pawns and while he was up in the air Infinite made spheres of energy appear in his hands. He threw the spheres at Sonic and he barely dodged one of them, he stomped onto the ground and boosted forwards, but Infinite quickly threw another sphere at Sonic forcing the Hedgehog to jump up into the air.

Infinite zipped over to Sonic and attempted to punch him in the side of his head. But Sonic quickly spun around in the air and kicked Infinite in the back of his head, the masked Jackal was sent tumbling to the ground and once he came to a stop he stood up growling again. Sonic also landed on the ground, although he landed on his feet and not on his face, Infinite glared at Sonic and floated off of the ground as he said "You never make any of this easy.. Do you?"

Sonic shook his head as he crouched down "Nope. But before I was doing it to annoy you, now, I'm doing it because I've got a world to save and you're in the way."

Infinite clenched his fists "We will see about that."

He then sped off and Sonic boosted after him. As Sonic ran after Infinite several large X's made out of red cubes appeared in front of him, forcing him to side step out of their way. Once he passed by them he quickly boosted forwards and Infinite held his hand out, a laser shot out of his palm and Sonic quickly jumped up into the air. He attempted to Homing Attack into Infinite, but the Jackal was expecting that, he quickly zipped out of Sonic's way and kicked him down to the ground bellow. Sonic bounced off of the ground and Infinite attempted to kick Sonic away again, but the blue Hedgehog quickly spun around in the air and scissor kicked the side of Infinite's head. He was sent flying away as Sonic landed back down on the ground normally again, Infinite skid to a stop in a crouched position, seething with anger, he floated up into the air and clenched his fists before making the tips of his fingers glow bright red. He suddenly lunged at Sonic and tried to swipe his glowing claws at the Hedgehog's head.

Sonic ducked underneath his hand and quickly punched the side of his torso. Infinite growled at Sonic again before swiping his other hand at Sonic, the blue Hedgehog ducked under that attack as well before attempting to punch Infinite's gut. But the masked Jackal used his other hand to grab Sonic's wrist, he quickly floated up into the air, his hand still gripped onto Sonic's wrist, and once the two were high up Infinite threw Sonic at the ground bellow. Sonic attempted to spin around in the air so he could land safely, but he was suddenly hit in his side by a sphere of red cubes. Sonic spun around wildly after that attack and he could just barely see that he was a few inches off of the ground, and he could see that Infinite was preparing to throw a sphere at Sonic at the same time. Suddenly a sphere of red cubes was shot at him again, but Sonic quickly grabbed onto it and threw it up at Infinite preventing him from shooting the sphere at Sonic. Infinite didn't have time to react to the incoming sphere so he was hit by it and he was blasted onto the ground groaning in pain.

Sonic and Infinite both hit the ground at the same time, with a very similar reaction, they both groaned in pain as they stood up. Suddenly, the Phantom Ruby began to glow and hum slightly. Infinite floated up into the air and glared down at Sonic and said to him "You're done for Sonic. The Phantom Ruby's energy is recharged."

Infinite let a pulse out of the Phantom Ruby and Sonic tried to push against the pulse's shock wave. But that only caused him to skid across the ground slightly, Infinite then said "Perish, along with your useless friends!"

Suddenly, a metal wire wized by Infinite's face. A hook attached onto the metal pathway and Infinite looked over to the source of the wire, only for the bottom of a foot to hit the side of Infinite's face. The masked Jackal saw, out of the corner of his eye, Gadget land on the ground next to Sonic. Infinite seethed with absolute anger "You!"

He grabbed onto the front of his mask and moved it back into place violently. Sonic grinned as he walked over to Gadget and said to Infinite "My friends got me this far, and together we're gonna win!"

Infinite clenched his fists and began to float away from Sonic and Gadget. As he did he said to the two of them "Friends are nothing but a fleeting illusion. You can count on nobody but yourself!"

Sonic shook his head "Your mask can't hide how sad and lonely you are! That Phantom Ruby Virtual Reality of yours is the real illusion!"

Infinite glared down at the two of them before creating two spheres of energy in his hands. He threw them at Sonic and Gadget, but the two of them jumped out of their way before Sonic grabbed onto Gadget's hand and boosted the two of them forwards. Infinite created tendrils of red cubes and made them swipe at the two of them, but they quickly jumped over first one, slid under the second, and Sonic side stepped out of the way of the last one, while Gadget jumped out of its way. They both quickly caught up with one another before they both jumped up into the air and Homing/Wire Attacked into Infinite. But the masked Jackal was prepared for them, he attempted to swipe at Gadget as he sped towards him, but suddenly the red Wolf used his grappling hook to pull himself down onto the ground, confusing Infinite, and letting Sonic Homing Attack him. Infinite let out a long growl of anger as Sonic landed back down on the ground, the blue Hedgehog grabbed onto Gadget's hand and they both boosted forwards.

The Phantom Ruby suddenly went off and it created a fake Infinite. The real Infinite then made the fake one speed off towards Sonic and Gadget similar to Metal Sonic's V. Maximum Overdrive. Sonic and Gadget jumped out of the speeding Jackal's way before boosting forwards again, at the same time Infinite's annoyance with the two of them was starting to become immeasurable. He made the Phantom Ruby go off again, and this time a wall of red cubes appeared behind Sonic and Gadget, and that wall chased after them as they ran. Infinite then suddenly made that wall of cubes surrounded all three of them like the walls of a colosseum, he then made the Phantom Ruby go off again, and this time, it transformed him into a much larger version of himself. He slammed onto the ground and he attempted to punch Sonic and Gadget, his fist glowing red as he did, but the smaller Hedgehog and Wolf quickly jumped out of the fist's way, and Gadget quickly fired his Wispon at Infinite's side.

The larger Jackal growled in pain as fires hit his side. He quickly spun around and hit Gadget away with the side of his large, and bushy, tail, Gadget was sent flying towards the wall of red cubes, but he was able to quickly use his grappling hook to stop his momentum. He landed on the ground as Sonic boosted off towards Infinite's legs, the large Jackal tried to stomp on Sonic but he quickly slid under his boot and once he came to a stop behind Infinite, Sonic jumped up into the air and Homing Attacked his back. Infinite fell onto his face and Sonic quickly jumped back up into the air before using the power of his boost to slam into Infinite's back, which caused him to let out a yell of pain. Infinite made the Phantom Ruby go off again and this time the cube wall returned to normal, and Sonic was blasted over to Gadget. Infinite then floated up off of the ground before flying away from the two of them quickly, Sonic and Gadget both began to run forwards and as they did Sonic looked over to the Wolf and said "Here goes partner!"

He grabbed Gadget's hand "When we join forces, the sky's the limit!"

They both began to speed up, getting faster and faster, until they both yelled out "Double! BOOST!"

They rocketed off and Infinite attempted to make tendrils of red cubes smack them. But they just burst right through the tendrils, Infinite's one visible eye went wide as he tried desperately to do anything to stop the two of them. He fired lasers at them, he threw sphere's of energy at them, he tired to make that wall of cubes get faster, but they were always out of reach, he even tried to make more tendrils smack into them, but nothing was working. That's when he saw Sonic and Gadget getting dangerously close to himself, he seethed with absolute anger as he curled up into a ball and placed his arms over his face in an attempt at blocking the incoming attack. Sonic and Gadget jumped up into the air and Double Boosted right into the larger than normal Infinite, they instantly blasted right through him and forced him out of his enlarged state.

Sonic and Gadget skid to a halt as Infinite tumbled across the metal path they were all on. Once Infinite himself skid to a stop he groaned as he attempted to stand up, as he did his aura began to flicker strangely, but he hadn't noticed, because he was to busy saying "Impossible, I cannot be defeated."

His form distorted for a second right before Sonic waved a finger at Infinite "Wrong loser! The things that can't be defeated are heart, soul, and the bonds of friendship."

He walked over to Gadget and patted the Wolf on his back, and Gadget then added "That's three things you and your counterfeit cronies lack!"

Infinite punched his fist against the ground in anger before attempting to stand back up again. As he tried he suddenly froze in place as his form began to distort heavily, to the point he was almost invisible every so often "N- No! Wait! **_I_** _C_ a **N** St **I** lL _Fi_ iiI _IIG_ GGggghH **hh** Hh ** _T_**!"

He floated up off of the ground before being forcefully turned into a glowing trail of energy that flew towards the Imperial Tower, which stood directly behind Gadget and Sonic. The two of them looked at each other in confusion and slight disbelief, right before a hatch in the path in front of them opened up and a screen came out of it, the screen turned on and showed Eggman, the Doctor then said to them "You never fail to surprise me Sonic. I didn't believe Infinite could lose... Heh, Victory will be so much sweeter when I defeat you."

Eggman then shook his head before saying "Don't think this is over yet, you blue nuisance! My plan just went into overtime!"

Sonic and Gadget both glared at the screen before it turned off and slid back down into the ground, the hatch closed, and they were left alone just outside of the Imperial Tower. Sonic and Gadget then ran forwards and away from the tower, heading towards their fellow Resistance fighters. Meanwhile, inside of the Imperial Tower, Infinite appeared in a room he's never been in before. He fell to his hands and knees and tried to regain the breath that he had lost due to the amount of energy that the Phantom Ruby had taken out of him. As he recovered he scanned around the room, trying to figure out where he was, it was filled with monitors, there was a large chair, and there were four different work benches in there as well. Suddenly, a door opened up over to Infinite's left, and when he looked over there he saw Eggman walk into the room, arms crossed behind his back, a disapproving glare on his face.

While he walked over to Infinite he said to him "Like I already said to Sonic and his Wolf accomplice. I thought you could never lose, but each time, you proved me wrong over, and over.. And.. OVER Again. Those continuous losses has made me rethink your position in my army."

He stopped next to Infinite and he forced the Jackal to stand up. Eggman grabbed onto the Phantom Ruby "I am firing you as my grand general. And, seeing as how you are no longer in my empire's army, I. Will. Be. Taking. This. BACK!"

He suddenly yanked the ruby off of Infinite's chest, which caused him to yell out in pain. He fell onto his knees as Eggman stepped back from Infinite "You claim to be the strongest person in the world, but you are a weakling."

Eggman then turned around and began to walk out of the room, but before he did, Eggman stopped in the doorway and said "I should've let you die along side the Jackal Squad."

He then left the room and the door slid shut behind him. Infinite would've seethed with anger, if he wasn't going light headed, his limbs felt weak, his chest ached, his sight was going dark. He tried to get rid of that light headedness and darkening sight by ripping off his mask and tossing it to the ground, sadly, those actions only caused them to get worse. He could hardly get any good breaths into his lungs, he put a hand on the spot where his Phantom Ruby once was as it continued to ache and throb. His sight was getting very dark, he felt as though he didn't even have a skull in his head anymore, and at the same time he felt like his chest was being set on fire, and crushed, all at the same time. That's when he suddenly passed out and fell face first onto the hard metal ground, meanwhile, Eggman stepped into an elevator and it began to lower down into the lower levels of the tower. At the same time he inspected the Phantom Ruby before turning on an intercom and saying into it "Orbot! Cubot! We're moving forwards with the Egg Imperium, get the production line up and running."

The voice of Cubot then said "You got it boss!"

Eggman then turned off of the intercom and he returned to staring at his creation, he watched as it glowed slightly, he then put the ruby in his pocket as the elevator continued to descend.


	30. Iron Judgment

**OKAY, THIS IS NOW OFFICIALLY MY LONGEST RUNNING STORY EVER. THE QUESTION IS, WILL I EVER MAKE A STORY AS LONG AS THIS ONE AGAIN? WHO KNOWS, BUT FOR NOW PLEASE ENJOY THIS CHAPTER. ALSO SORRY THAT ITS TAKEN SO LONG TO COME OUT, FANFICTION KINDA WENT CRAZY FOR A MOMENT AND I COULDN'T WORK ON THIS DURING THAT TIME.**

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Blue ran across a metal pathway, and as he did the voice of Tails said "The Phantom Ruby signal is moving underground! Eggman is up to something again!"

Blue then looked up into the sky as the Eco Destroyer aimed one of its bottom cannons at a Resistance ship that had flown to close to the Destroyer. Once the cannon was in position a blast of ice came out of it and the entire outside of the Resistance ship froze over, the ship then fell to the ground and Blue quickly Drop Dashed away from the ice covered metal debris that had come off of the crashed ship. Once he jumped back up onto his feet red boxes came out of the ground next to the pathway, the boxes then fired out red missiles that flew towards Blue. The Hedgehog jumped up into the air and over a missile before landing back down on the ground and Drop Dashing away.

He rolled underneath another missile before jumping up to his feet and running into a large refinery for more unstable ores and minerals. As the automatic metal doors of the refinery slid closed behind Blue Shadow said "The Doctor hasn't given up. Don't let your guard down yet."

Blue began to run towards a set of stairs that would lead him up to the second floor, as he did Tails said "We have to find the entrance to the Imperial Tower and stop Eggman!"

Blue sighed before saying "What if after I take down this Eco Destroyer thing. I find a way in for you guys?"

The voice of Tails then said "Thanks Blue! Knew we could count on you!"

Blue sighed again before nodding and reaching the second floor. Once on that floor he saw that it was much larger than the first one, there were conveyor belt all over the place, various rocks were on each of the belts, and suspended over the belts in midair were several large wheels. Blue watched as a rock got underneath one of the wheels, and once it did, the rock was pulled up to the wheel and it stuck to its side. The rock was then carried up towards the top of the room by the rotating of the wheel, and once it reached there a hatch opened up and a claw carried the rock away. Suddenly, Egg Pawns stepped out from behind machinery that was grinding up minerals, they all aimed their blaster arms at Blue before the Hedgehog quickly jumped into action.

Blue cut through one of the Pawns, curled up in a Spin Ball. Once he hit the ground he quickly Drop Dashed through the next one, before jumping up and cutting through the last one in his Spin Ball. Once he landed on the ground again he heard the sound of metal scrapping against the floor behind him, he turned around and watched as an arm off of an Egg Pawn was pulled towards one of the wheels, the arm then of course went through the same process as that rock from before, although this time it gave Blue an idea. He quickly grabbed onto the head of a Pawn and ran over to one of the wheels, almost instantly he felt a magnetic pull on the Pawn head and it, along with him, was dragged up to the wheel. Blue gripped onto the sides of the severed head tightly as the wheel rotated around, and once he was underneath the hatch in the roof, it split open and a claw grabbed onto Blue.

It pulled him up through the hatch and once it closed the claw let go of him and he dropped to the floor of this new room. He then looked around to see that he had been placed on top of a conveyor belt, and that belt was moving towards a large metal furnace. Blue quickly spun around began to run towards the other end of the belt, which was harder than normal due to its pull, as he did he hopped over small chunks of ore and minerals. Suddenly, hatches in this room's roof opened up and Buzz Bombers flew into it, they tried to dive bomb Blue but he quickly jumped up into the air and cut one of them in half. And before he landed he spun around and kicked another one onto the belt behind him. He returned to running against the pull of the belt as pieces of Buzz Bombers were dragged off towards the furnace, he was slowly reaching the end of the belt when suddenly sirens blared all around him. Various hatches opened up all around him and all sorts of things poured through them, from people wearing metal collars and orange prison like jump suits, to Egg Pawns.

The people, who were more than likely Eggman's slaves, were forced over to the controls of machinery. The slaves then quickly got to work pressing buttons, pulling levers, and twisting dials. At the same time claws that were attached to the roof of the room began to zip and zoom around, picking up random ores and minerals, before bringing them over to a chute, the claws then dropped the rocks into it before repeating that process over and over again. From what Blue could tell, no one had noticed him yet, that was until he waited for a claw to zoom over head. He jumped up and grabbed onto it before climbing up the metal cable that attached it to the roof, once on the metal cable he jumped off of it and onto a catwalk were some slaves and robots were. The slaves looked over to Blue in surprise as the Pawns began to stomp towards him, Blue looked over his shoulder and said "Don't worry! You'll be outta here, and out of those suits, in no time!"

He quickly Spin Dashed forwards and right through most of the Egg Pawns. All except for two, who were able to quickly jump out of Blue's way, the Hedgehog jumped back up to his feet before running towards the closest still living Pawn. Which seemed to be made of chrome, the robot aimed its twin arm blasters before firing off rapid shots at Blue. But the Hedgehog quickly jumped up into the air and over its head before it had the chance to react, once he landed on the ground he kicked his foot through its back. Suddenly, the second Pawn attempted to fire at Blue as well, but the Hedgehog quickly took his foot out of the now dead Pawn's back, before using that same foot to throw the dead robot's body at the still living Pawn. The two robots crashed together and Blue quickly Spin Dashed right through them, once that was done he ran over to the slaves and said "You good?"

They nodded before a brown Dog said "We are, but! You gotta save the others!"

He then pointed over to the other catwalk as Egg Pawns took notice of what Blue had done. The Hedgehog grinned before nodding "You got it."

He quickly ran over to the guard rails of the catwalk before climbing up onto them. He then jumped off and grabbed onto a passing claw's cable, he rode it before getting a bright idea. He began to swing back and forth, each time he did the arch of the swing got bigger and bigger, he then quickly chanced the direction of the swing and the claw flung itself right at the other catwalk. Its metal talons grabbed onto the catwalk, which was a command given out by one of the other slaves, Blue quickly gave a thumbs up to one of them and yelled out "Reel her in!"

The slave quickly twisted a dial and instantly the metal cable of the claw began to retract. Metallic groans came from the catwalk as it was slowly pulled off of the wall it was on, at the same time Blue jumped off of the claw and over to a tall piece of machinery. He spun around and faced the end of the catwalk above him "Jump down!"

The slaves hesitantly followed Blue's order before the catwalk shuttered. And suddenly, it broke right off of the wall, Egg Pawns fell to the ground bellow, some even fell onto a conveyor belt, but most fell into the jaws of machinery that grinned minerals down to dust. Blue helped the slaves down off of the machinery they were on before running over to the other catwalk and helping them down. Once everyone was safe and sound he asked them "How do I turn off those collar things?"

A green Bird in the back of the group suddenly spoke up "I know."

He then stepped forwards and Blue saw that he had a large tuft of white feathers on his chest similar to Shadow's and Silver's chest furs. The Bird also had a large set of feathers coming out of the back of his head, he also had black and red feathers outlining the outsides of his eyes, which were bright blue. Blue eyed the Bird curiously "Who.. Are you?"

The Bird put his hands on his hips before saying "Name's Jet the Hawk. No then, do you want to set us free or what?"

Blue nodded "Yeah, how do I turn off those collars?"

Jet pointed to the remains of a chrome Egg Pawn "They're the guys in charge of this place, one of em' should have a remote built into the side of their arms. Once you find it all you got to do is press the blue button and we're set free."

Blue nodded again before running over to those remains. He scrounged through it before finally coming across the still very intact remains of its arm, he felt around it before finally coming across the hatch that was on it. He pulled it open and revealed what could only be described as a keyboard built into it, Blue then spun around before pressing the bright blue button on it, suddenly, the slaves' collars beeped, and the unlocked themselves. The collars fell to the ground before the slaves all quickly began to run out of the room and the refinery. Blue followed after them, but as he ran he saw that Jet hadn't moved yet, so he skid to a halt and said to him "You leaving?"

Jet looked over his shoulder and to the small Hedgehog "Nope, not yet. Something of mine is in here somewhere."

Blue then said "Alright, just don't get shredded."

Jet rolled his eyes before looking away from Blue as the Hedgehog ran out of the room. Once he did, Jet walked over to a large crate in the back of the room, he climbed over its side and stuck his hand into the large quantity of contents inside of it. He eventually found what he was looking for, he pulled it out of the crate and set it down on the ground, what he had just pulled out was metal surf board like object, that was colored green, with yellow and white markings, and a black trim around its sides. Jet stepped onto it and the board suddenly sprung to life, it hovered off of the ground and he quickly rocketed out of the room and down one of the halls in the refinery, as he flew out of the room he quickly lunged his hand out and grabbed onto something that a claw was holding onto, that something being a small stone ring. Jet suddenly rocketed past Blue and out onto the roof of the refinery, Blue watched in amazement as Jet came to a stop in midair on top of his board, he then held the ring high up into the air and, in a bright flash of blue light, he disappeared.

Blue couldn't believe it, that was something he only read about in books about old legends. That was an Extreme Gear Hover Board, and that ring, it was covered runes, those two things only meant one thing. Blue just watched one of the legendary Babylon Rogues, a group of mythical sky pirates, transport himself to the flying city of Babylon! Suddenly, Blue was taken out of his amazement when he heard the sound of a loud boom behind him, he quickly spun around and saw that there was a large square spire on the edge of the refinery's roof, and on top of that spire was an anti-air cannon. Maybe Blue could use that thing to take down the Eco Destroyer, well there was no maybe about it, that was the closest thing to a plan he had at the moment. He quickly ran forwards and began to scale the side of the spire with the aide of his speed, once at the top he saw an Egg Pawn operating the controls of the cannon. Blue quickly Drop Dashed forwards and cut right through the Pawn, he then stood back up and grabbed onto the cannon's controls, the question now is, how does he work this thing?

Blue swallowed his doubt before some how managing to aim the cannon at the Eco Destroyer, he then some how found the cannon's fire button. But when he pressed it nothing happened, Blue quickly looked at the control panel and saw that there was a digital screen that told him "No ammo loaded" Blue sighed "That's just great."

He then looked over to the back end of the cannon's barrel, and he got a crazy idea. Blue quickly messed around with the controls before figuring out how to set a timed fire, he then jumped up to the hatch at the end of the cannon, and slid right into the barrel. He curled up into a ball just seconds before the cannon fired him right out of it, he rocketed through the air and right towards the Eco Destroyer. Luckily, his speed and durable quills meant that he cut right through the ship's side like butter, not so luckily was the fact that he also cut right through all of the systems that controlled the ship's various elemental cannons. Once Blue came out to the other end of the ship he heard the sound of the Eco Destroyer beginning to freeze itself over, and at the same time, it also began to melt itself. Blue spun around in the air and watched as the ship's engine's cut out and it fell out of the sky, he then spun back around and landed on the side of the Imperial Tower, he then slid down it slowing his decent as he did.

Suddenly the voice of Knuckles said "Blue! We just saw the Eco Destroyer go down, have you found the entrance yet?"

Blue jumped off of the side of the tower and landed in a deep, and wide, trench that surrounded its base "No not yet, still working on it."

He then sped forwards as hatches all around him began to open up, rockets were then fired at him and he had to get even faster to stay ahead of them. He then suddenly passed by some strange structure to his left, but he couldn't quite get a good look at it because he was still being chased by rockets. He waited for the right moment before jumping up into the air and Drop Dashing out of the fire of the rockets, he came to a stop next to that structure which was actually just an arch which stood in front of what looked to be a metal door. Blue then said "Think I found it!"

Sonic then said "That's great! Me and Gadget are on our way!"

Blue quickly glanced over to his right and saw a rocket heading right for his head, he ducked under it before saying "That's cool and all.. But I'm inches away from loosing my own head so.. I'm out!"

He quickly spun around and ran up the side of the trench, as Sonic and Gadget ran right past him, they jumped down into the trench before running towards the metal door. Gadget pressed a button that made the door slide open, the two then ran into the tower as Tails said "The Phantom Ruby signal is heading for the reactor. You two have to hurry!"

The two then ran down a large set of stairs as Amy then added "The reactor is in the innermost part of the fortress. But the defense system is too tough to break through by normal means."

Sonic grinned "Good thing we're not normal. We'll find a way through!"

Suddenly a door slid open in front of them and they entered into a massive room that stretched on for who knows how many miles. Aero Chasers flew over head as Sonic and Gadget ran down a glass roadway, the Chasers then opened up their arms and fired their lasers at the two of them. Sonic grabbed onto Gadget's hand and he boosted them forwards, the Aero Chasers attempted to keep up with the two of them but they just couldn't, so they flew away as various large doors slid open in front of the two of them. Suddenly, several spiked wheels lowered down from the roof and attempted to shred Sonic and Gadget into pieces, they dodged the wheels as best they could before the Aero Chasers attempted to fire at them again. But Gadget quickly jumped up into the air, taking Sonic with him, before Gadget fired off his grappling hook.

Its claw attached to something ahead of them and Gadget used it to swing themselves over to a set of cargo freight train rails. They grinded across them, and the rails then led them into a room filled with glass tubes of liquid, and inside of those tubes surrounded by the liquid were black cubes. Sonic then said "You guys seeing this?"

Tails then said "Yeah, so that's where Eggman built Infinite."

Amy sighed "It's so sad. What a lonely place to be brought into the world."

Sonic and Gadget then saw the set of rails begin to flicker red. They quickly jumped off of it and onto the other rail right before the one they were on before was covered in an electrical field. Sonic boosted the two of them forwards and onto another glass pathway, as they did Tails said "The reactor is close. Hurry!"

Sonic nodded "We're on it. Here goes!"

Suddenly, Aero Chasers flew over head again and they began to fire their lasers at the two of them. At the same time spiked wheels came down from the roof as well, Sonic and Gadget worked together to dodge both the lasers and the wheels while Sonic boosted the two of them forwards. Sonic narrowly dodged being shot in half by a Chasers' beam, as Gadget saw that they were heading right towards a doughnut shaped hole. Sonic and Gadget then reached the edge of the of path, they then jumped off of it and Gadget used his grappling hook to swing them down into the reactor bellow. Once they landed Knuckles said "Well. I'll be. They made it! They actually made it!"

Sonic and Gadget looked around the reactor and saw that in the center of it there was a series of metal blinders surrounding the center of the reactor, and surrounding the outside of the reactor itself were various tubes filled with what looked to be prototype Phantom Rubies. Suddenly, Egg Pawns came out of the roof above them and Sonic sighed "I could use a little breather right about now. I'll feel better once we blow this thing to pieces!"

Sonic then turned to face Gadget and he said "Alright, you take out those tubes, and I'll deal with the bots."

Gadget nodded "You got it!"

He then turned around and ran towards one of the tubes, at the same time Sonic also turned around and he boosted through a line of Pawns. Gadget fired his Wispon at one of the tubes and it shuttered around, before there was suddenly a blast that came out of it, that blast then damaged one of the blinds surrounding the central reactor. The Phantom Ruby prototype fell out of the tube and it tumbled across the ground before Gadget moved on to the other tube, suddenly, laser turrets came out of the base of the reactor, they fired at Gadget. But he jumped over one of the beam, and Wire Attacked into the next tube, two cracks appeared on the glass of the tube from where Gadget's feet connected with it. He then fell to the ground and fired his Wispon at the tube, and it exploded again, more blinds were destroyed by the blast as a prototype tumbled across the ground. More laser turrets began to fire at Gadget as an energy shield began to surround the last tube, at the same time Sonic slid underneath one of the beams and took out a line of Egg Pawns.

Gadget waited for the energy shield to lower before firing his Wispon at it. The tube exploded and the shock wave destroyed the last of the blinds, and the core reactor began to crumble and explode. Gadget ran over to Sonic and the Hedgehog quickly grabbed onto Gadget's hand, he began to lead them towards an exhaust port. Sonic and Gadget used their speed to run up the exhaust port as Sonic said "Pretty thrilling, huh, Gadget?"

The red Wolf glanced over his shoulder as he watched the light that came off of the reactor explosion chase up the exhaust port behind them "U- Uh.. I guess?"

Explosions came out of the metal cylinder that they were running up as Sonic said "It's time to head back. Everyone's waiting for us!"

Sonic grabbed onto Gadget's hand and the two of them began to speed up, faster and faster, until they Double Boosted forwards. Constant explosions happened all around them as they ran, the reactor explosion slowly caught up to them, they were engulfed in the bright light. Before the two of them shot out of the exhaust port and up into the sky, the two of them landed on top of a large cliff that faced the Imperial Tower. At the same time Tails, who was carrying Blue, landed in front of them Sonic and Gadget both waved to them before Blue jumped out of Tails' hands and landed on the ground, arms stretched out like he just did a perfect acrobatic landing. Sonic then said "We did it! Eggman's army is officially butt-kicked. We won!"

Sonic was about to fist bump Gadget, when suddenly the ground began to shake. The two of them turned around and Sonic ran over to the edge of the cliff, he looked down it and saw a large hanger door in the ground slid open and that caused him to say "Oh, come on! Now what?! Can't we ever just win and have that be the end of it?!"

Suddenly, a large metal claw came out of the hanger bellow Sonic and it tried to hit him. The Hedgehog quickly jumped backwards as Tails yelled out "Look!"

As he did a massive, multi-armed, black colored, with red lights on it, mech suit rose out of the hanger and loomed over the cliff. That mech suit also had a snake like appendage where its legs should've been, Eggman laughed over the mech suit's loud speakers "Gotcha! The fortress reactor was just a decoy! A true winner always keeps his trump card hidden until the end."

Everyone glared up at the mech suit, as Tails' communicator turned on and the voice of Knuckles said "Sonic, what's going on? There aren't less enemies! There's MORE!"

Tails gasped "W- What?!"

The voice of Rouge then said "Confirmed sightings include. Shadow, Zavok, Chaos, Metal Sonic, Infinite... Thousands of them!"

Sonic clenched his fists as he stepped forwards "What have you done!?"

Eggman laughed again "Mwa-hahaha! I merely incorporated the Phantom Ruby into this robot, which I have named the Egg Imperium!"

Tails stared up at the Egg Imperium in fear "But that means the Phantom Ruby no longer has a vulnerable energy supply, it's an invulnerable ruby?"

Eggman then said "A good deduction Tails. The Egg Imperium has... No, I have surpassed Infinite and Shadow to become the complete ultimate form! You will be crushed by this mech powered by the Phantom Ruby, and in the end everything will still be just as I planed!"

Eggman then bust out into a fit of laughter as the Egg Imperium let out a Phantom Ruby pulse. Everyone skid backwards as they were pushed back by the pulse, once it finished Sonic regained his balance and said "Your plan will end like all your plans do: with you sitting in a pile of busted robot parts wondering how you failed. So. Badly!"

Blue and Gadget stepped forwards as Sonic talked, Blue then said "Let's get him."

The three of them then ran forwards as the Egg Imperium spread its multiple arms out in an intimidating matter, at the same time Tails let out a cry of excitement as he watched Sonic, Blue, and Gadget enter into battle with the Egg Imperium.


	31. Vs Egg Imperium

Sonic, Gadget, and Blue ran towards the Egg Imperium, when suddenly another Phantom Pulse came out of it. Gadget disappeared, so did Sonic, and suddenly Blue appeared over a road made up of dark purple cubes that was floating in midair in front of the Egg Imperium. At the same time a circular slit appeared on top of the Imperium's circular body, it then fired off a red laser and Blue quickly jumped away from it as it ripped right through the road where he once was. As Blue landed on his feet again the voice of Tails said "He's overclocking the Phantom Ruby! That's insane!"

The area of the road that had just been destroyed reappeared suddenly as Rouge said "No regular tool can damage it now. You three are our last chance!"

The Imperium then fired off another laser, but instead of going up and down, it swept right across the entire road. Blue jumped over the beam as Tails said "Give it your all!"

The Egg Imperium then, with all of its six arms, reached down to the ground. They tore chunks out of the ground before throwing them at the road blue was on, he rolled out of the way of one of the boulders before he was covered in the shadow of another. He then quickly rolled onto his back, before using his powerful legs to launch the chunk over him back towards Eggman and his multi-armed mech. Blue picked himself up off of the road as the boulder hit something invisible in front of the mech's body, that invisible thing was then revealed to be a force field when a red, translucent, aura flickered around the mech's entire body. The Egg Imperium then fired off another laser and Blue jumped over it again, at the same time the Imperium's four back arms reached down and tore more chunks of rock out of the ground bellow. They quickly tossed the rocks at Blue as he ducked under another red laser, he quickly rolled out of the way of the boulder that had been sent flying towards him, but he was quickly recovered by the shadow of another one.

He jumped up into the air and used his powerful Spin Ball move to knock the boulder back at the Egg Imperium. It crashed against its force field and it flickered red randomly again, the Imperium then fired off another laser and Blue jumped over it before the six arms of the mech threw even more rocks at him. He dodged the ones that had gotten to close, before kicking two others at the Imperium, they crashed against its shield only a moment or two after each other. When the first one crashed into the shield, red cracks grew across it and it almost looked as if reality were cracking in front of the mech's body only, then the second one hit it the cracks grew worse, and this time the shield's red aura surrounded the mech permanently. Blue could hear Eggman groan out in annoyance over the mech's loud system, he then fired off another laser and Blue dodged it. But unlike last time, the Imperium didn't pick up any rocks, instead it trust one of its fists out at the road similar to how the Death Egg Robot launched its fists at Sonic back on the Death Egg.

Blue skid to a halt as its right fist crashed through the area of the road in front of him, he attempted to turn around and get as far away from that fist as possible, but the left fist then crashed through the road behind him. The snake like body of the Egg Imperium got closer to Blue, and its back arms all loomed over head, their claw like fingers moving randomly. The slit on top of the Imperium's body began to glow as it charged up its laser beam, Blue was stuck, he couldn't just jump off of the road because that led right down to the ground bellow, which was who knows how many miles bellow him. Blue sighed, before swallowing his fears and doubts, he curled up into a Spin Ball and began to charge up a Spin Dashing. Getting faster and faster as the laser above him got closer and closer to firing, then Blue suddenly let himself go and he rocketed right off of the road, and into the red force field shattering it. Blue bounced off of the now broken field and as he flew through the air the mech let out a Phantom Ruby pulse that made Blue disappear, and Gadget reappear on a large platform of hexagons.

The Egg Imperium regained its balance before staring down at Gadget, he readied his Wispon as Vector said "Go on Gadget! I know you can do this!"

Silver then added "Our fate is in your hands!"

Gadget sighed "Gee thanks Silver, no pressure at all."

Suddenly, the Imperium raised its right hand up and fired several rockets out of its glowing red finger tips. The rockets flew straight towards Gadget, who quickly raised his Wispon and used it to destroy the missiles. Suddenly the hand clenched itself before raising up into the air and slamming down against the large platform, sending visible red shock waves rolling across it. Gadget jumped up off of the ground as wave after wave of shock waves rolled underneath him, he quickly thrust his hand out and used his grappling hook to Wire Attack into the unmoved, slammed fist, he slammed against its black metallic side before falling to the now safe ground. He raised his Wispon again and fired at the fist continuously before Eggman made the mech swipe its hand, it hit Gadget and sent the poor young red Wolf tumbling across the ground, he almost slid off of the floating platform, but he quickly thrust his hand out and grabbed onto the side of the platform before he could fall.

Gadget climbed back up onto the platform as the Imperium held its hand out and fired more missiles out of the tips of its fingers. Gadget yet again took out those missiles with his Wispon, but the last one some how dodged every single attack Gadget tried to throw at it. So the Wolf could only run from the relatively slow moving rocket, as he did the Imperium slammed its fist against the platform again and more visible shock waves rolled across the ground. Gadget jumped over them and attempted to Wire Attack into the mech's fist, when suddenly one of the back arms tried to swipe at him, he used his grappling hook to dodge the arm and once he landed he had to quickly back flip over the still chasing missile, that's when he got an idea. He landed back down on the ground and waited for the rocket to circle back around, once it did he began to run forwards heading straight towards the fist, one of the other arms attempted to swipe at him again, but he rolled under its attack and the missile swerved out of its way.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw that the missile was right where he needed it to be, he quickly jumped up into the air, silently hoping his crazy plan would work, before landing on top of the missile. He rode the rocket like a surf board before finally jumping off and sending it flying right into the unmoved fist, the missile exploded upon impact and the Egg Imperium reared its fist back as though it were in pain, at the same time Egg Pawns appeared around Gadget. He quickly began to take them out with his Wispon, and once they were destroyed the mech used both of its main hands to fire more missiles at Gadget. He dodged the missiles before using his Wispon to destroy them, once they were destroyed the Imperium attempted to slam its fist right on top of Gadget. He quickly rolled out of its way, and a second before the fist connected with the ground he jumped up into the air and used his grappling hook to pull himself up to the top side of the arm. Once up there he began to fire his Wispon with no mercy at the robotic fist bellow him, Eggman yelled out in anger before quickly swinging the Imperium's fist up into the air. Gadget fell off of the fist and landed on the platform bellow as more Egg Pawns appeared all around him, he quickly got to work destroying them when suddenly the Imperium thrust its fist at the ground of the platform.

The fist broke right through it and Gadget had to run as fast as he could to escape the falling chunks of hexagons that made up the platform. He could then hear what sounded like the sound of a Phantom Ruby pulse, and when he looked over to the Egg Imperium, it fired a laser right at him. He jumped out of its way as the laser tore right through the platform, the Imperium then fired another laser and Gadget had to jump out of its way as well, another set of hexagons being destroyed in the process by the laser. At the same time more Egg Pawns appeared and they attempted to fire at Gadget, who just dodged their fire as best he could while the Imperium continued to fire its laser at him. Once the last Egg Pawn was destroyed by collateral damage the Imperium used both of its hands to fire off more missiles, while still firing off its laser. Gadget dodged and destroyed the rockets as best he could while also dodging the large red laser beam that was being fired at him, the Imperium then stopped firing its laser and slammed its fist against what remained of the platform, Gadget quickly jumped up into the air and Wire Attacked into the fist again, and upon landing he fired off his Wispon and a small explosion came out of the right hand's little finger.

A chain reaction was sent all the way up the Egg Imperium's arm, until finally there were a few mute explosions inside of the mech's main body, before it leaned back motionless. Its extra arms stopped moving, and the only thing that was actually moving was the smoke that rose out of the Imperium's body, suddenly, there was a muffled bang, followed by another one, that second bang destroyed the glass that had been apparently covering some kind of hatch, there was a third bang and the hatch puffed up as if something were trying to break out. For a moment, there wasn't any more movement, until suddenly, several white tendrils erupted from the hatch and tore it to shreds, a monster like mech suit then climbed out of the Egg Imperium's chest as if it were some kind of parasite from a horror movie. It quickly leaped off of the Imperium's body and landed on the ground bellow, at the same time another Phantom Ruby pulse went off and Gadget was transported off of the remains of the platform and safely onto the ground bellow. At the same time Blue appeared next to him, and on his other side, so did Sonic, the three of them looked at the strange white and red mech before Blue said "What is that thing?"

Sonic punched his fist into his other hand's palm "I elect to call it the Egg Tumbler.. Now that that's out of the way, let's scramble some Egghead!"

They nodded before running towards the Egg Tumbler. The white mech lashed one of its tendrils at the three of them, but they all dodged the attack as Knuckles said "Come on guys! Eggman's on our level now, Phantom Ruby, or no Phantom Ruby.. Charge!"

The entire Resistance began to run towards the Egg Tumbler as Sonic boosted around it, he ran circles around the Tumbler as Blue charged up a Spin Dash. He rocketed forwards and slammed into the side of the mech, as Gadget jumped up into the air and used his grappling hook to land on top of the mech's head. He then fired his Wispon at it as Sonic stopped running, he then boosted towards the mech and he knocked it up into the air. It hit the ground and it tumbled across the ground when Shadow suddenly appeared behind it, he raised his fists up and yelled out "Chaos Blast!"

A red blast came out of his body and he sent the Egg Tumbler flying through the air again. Sonic Homing Attacked into the side of the flying mech and it flew towards Knuckles, who uppercut the mech and set it flying in another direction. Gadget helped Blue get up into the air and the Hedgehog sent the mech flying again, it hit the ground and slid across it when Amy suddenly held up her Piko Hammer, she quickly hit the back of the mech and it skid away from her and towards the Chaotix who worked together to tare off two tendrils, and to send it skidding away. The Egg Tumbler was sent skidding towards Omega who aimed its now gatling gun arms at the mech, panels in its fore arms opened up before he then fired off at it, bullets and small missiles all hit the side of the Tumbler and it lost its momentum due to that. The mech skid to a halt in front of Omega and everyone stepped forwards, they all stared at the mech cautiously when suddenly, its top burst off and Eggman stood up in his docked Egg Mobile. Everyone took a cautious stance before Eggman held up the Phantom Ruby "Stay back! I may be mech-less. But I still have this!"

Sonic grinned before putting his hands on his hips "Sure, you may not have the Ruby. But that doesn't mean that we can't kick your but!"

Eggman growled at Sonic before thrusting the hand that was holding the Ruby in before yelling "You may have me out numbered! But that will soon be changed."

He then held the Ruby up into the air when suddenly, something flew over his head. The Ruby was taken right out of his hand and whoever had taken it landed on the ground in front of the Egg Tumbler, it stood up and Eggman yelled "I- Infinite?!"

The masked Jackal looked over to Eggman as his grip on the Ruby grew tighter "Hello Doctor."

* * *

A Few Minutes Ago, the Top of the Imperial Tower.

* * *

Infinite suddenly gasped out for air as his eyes bolted open. His chest ached still, his eyes had trouble focusing at first, but they slowly readjusted themselves as he struggled to stand up. He winced slightly as he finally got up to his feet, he looked over to his right and saw his mask sitting on the ground, he closed his eyes before looking away and over to his left. Specifically he looked over to a wall that had several monitors on it, those monitors showed various feeds of security cameras all around the Imperial Tower. He walked over to the wall of monitors and his eyes scanned over them before resting on one that showed him some of the Resistance fighting against what were once his Phantom Clones.

But his own eyes rested on the image of Shadow as he kicked the side of an Infinite Phantom Clone. He clenched his fists "You.. I became what I am because of you.. And even still.. I couldn't rise up above my old self! I've failed far to many times to you, and even still... I can't do anything about it!"

He slammed his fist down on the keyboard in front of him. Suddenly, one of the monitors changed from a camera feed, to what looked to be a theory that Eggman had come up. Infinite stared at it and saw that it was the scans of that small blue Hedgehog, Infinite scanned over the various readings that was mostly gibberish to him. That was until, he saw a string of numbers that he had seen several times before, even though he knew those numbers, he thought nothing of them. That was until he remembered something, that made him realize just how he could finally get his revenge on not just Shadow, but the entire Resistance, and even Eggman. He quickly turned around and began to walk towards his helmet, he picked it up and before he put it on he stared at its inside for a moment.

He then said to himself "Soon.. I will finally crush Sonic and his pint-sized-counterpart under my boot.. I will burn the Resistance to the ground.. I will make that Wolf feel the same pain that Dog, Matty, felt when she died."

Infinite then slid on his mask and said "And I will crush Eggman's head in between my hands, and watch his blood run dry."

He then turned to his left and walked out of the room as the Egg Tumbler was attacked on all sides by the Resistance. He stood on a balcony at the top of the tower that looked over most of the surroundings of the tower. He climbed up onto its guard rails before jumping off of it and landing on one of the multi-tiered roofs, he then climbed down the tower and once he was at the half way point he saw the Egg Tumbler get hit by bullets and missiles from Omega. Infinite clenched his fists before jumping down to another roof, at the same time the Tumbler's top burst off, Infinite could see the yelling match between Eggman and Sonic out of the corner of his eye. He then jumped down onto a large metal wall that surrounded the trench that surrounded the Imperial Tower, he squatted down waiting for the right moment, when suddenly it showed itself. He jumped off of the wall and towards Eggman, he quickly thrust his hand out and snatched the Phantom Ruby right out of his hand, he then spun around and landed on the ground in front of the Egg Tumbler.

Infinite then stood up as Eggman gasped out his name, he looked over to Eggman and said "Hello Doctor."

Eggman clenched his fists before slamming them against the docked Egg Mobile's control panel "Rrrrgggghhhh! Give me back my Ruby!"

Infinite rolled his eyes "Don't worry, I'm merely borrowing the Ruby for a moment, you can have it back once I'm done."

He then turned around and held his hand out, he aimed it right at Blue before the Phantom Ruby hummed. Suddenly, a red laser shot out of it and hit Blue right on his chest, Blue fell onto his back as Sonic and Gadget both yelled out the smaller Hedgehog's name. Sonic ran over to his inter-dimensional self and said "Dude, are you alright?!"

Blue groaned "Y- Yeah.. I'm good, just.. Stings."

Suddenly, red sparks began to jump out of his chest randomly. He was lifted up off of the ground as an orange aura began to surround his body, Infinite tossed the Phantom Ruby down to the ground as Blue let out groans of pain. There was suddenly a flash of red light and the sound of a Phantom Ruby pulse came from Blue, Infinite held his hand out and suddenly, a gemstone that was shaped like a icosahedron diamond flew into his hand. Blue fell back onto the ground his body returned completely to normal, Eggman stared baffled at Infinite "Wh- What did you do?"

Infinite chuckled as he turned around and faced the Doctor "You see.. I have used the Phantom Ruby to summon forth something from inside of the pint-sized-Hedgehog... Tell me, Doctor. Do you remember how you thought of creating the Ruby?"

Eggman glared at Infinite "Of course I do! I'm not stup-"

"And do you remember how you based the Ruby's powers off of a description of a mythical gemstone you learned about in a temple in the Mystic Jungle?"

Eggman clenched his fists tighter "Yes! I! Do! Its my Ru-"

"Now then... To those of you who may not know."

Infinite looked around the Resistance group before continuing "Infinite created the Phantom Ruby after finding a mural inside of a temple in the Jungle.. Its description was that of a gemstone that could grant the wishes of anyone who controlled it, that gave rise to the Phantom Ruby's Virtual Reality powers. But this!"

He thrust the hand that was holding the new gemstone up into the air "This is the true Phantom Ruby! It is a gemstone that can alter reality physically and not virtually! What Eggman created, is merely a counterfeit knock off."

He then lifted his foot up off of the ground, before stomping his foot down on top of Eggman's Phantom Ruby. It shattered into pieces and Infinite said "Like I've already told you Doctor. You can have the Ruby back, of course, you'll have to recreate it piece by piece."

He then turned around to face the Resistance "And as for all of you.. Its time for you all to see my true potential!"

Infinite pressed the true Phantom Ruby against his chest, in the spot Eggman's Phantom Ruby was once before. Crimson purple energy arched off of the true Ruby and to Infinite's chest, slowly it began to faze into his chest, little by little, inch by inch, until suddenly the Ruby locked into place and Infinite let out a low growl. He groaned out a chuckle "Oh.. I haven't felt this strong since the first time I connected wit the Doctor's Ruby."

More crimson purple energy arched off of the true Ruby, and onto Infinite's chest. Everyone backed away from Infinite as he slowly began to lift off of the ground, he clenched his fists tightly when suddenly, those blots of energy arched to not just his chest, but also to his mask. He brought his hands up to his head as his mask began to shrink around his head, almost as if it were trying to become it. While it shrank, a mouth slowly began to grow out of the bottom of the mask, it was filled with jagged and sharp teeth, and once it was fully completed, a low groan came out of it, the mask's ears began to slowly change in shape, becoming more horn like, yet they still kept an ear like shape.

The shrinking of the mask came to a stop and it looked as if it were actually Infinite's head, and suddenly the red tinted lens blinked like an eye. Infinite's dreadlocks grew in size as well, to the point they stretched down to the middle of his back. Infinite slowly began to laugh manically, before he said " **Hahaha.. Hahahaha.. Hahahah!.. HAHAHAHAH!** **Behold! My true potential! I am no longer just Infinite! I am now, Phantom Infinite!** "

He lifted up off of the ground as Eggman attempted to turn the Egg Tumbler back on, Phantom Infinite looked over his shoulder and glared down at Eggman " **Now, now Doctor. You mustn't leave just yet, I still have plans for you.** "

He then held his hand out, and there was the sound of a Phantom Ruby pulse, before Eggman and the Egg Tumbler was covered in a thick layer of purple crystal. Phantom Infinite then looked back over to the Resistance " **Now.. As for all of you, you've been a thorn in my side for far too long.. That is why, I'll torture you, I'll break you, then, I'll make you witness the complete reshaping of your world according to my will and vision... All except for the two Sonics, and the Wolf.** "

Sonic, Gadget, and Blue all took an aggressive stance as Phantom Infinite chuckled slightly, he shook his head in a faked sense of sadness " **You act mighty now.. But I'll gut the three of you in front of the Resistance, showing them once and for all.. That I am now the one true master of the world! And not something to be taken lightly!** "

He then slowly began to curl himself up into a ball, right before he quickly unballed himself and a massive Phantom Ruby pulse came out of him. Everyone was blasted back by the pulse, another pulse came out of Phantom Infinite and this time, everything went dark all around Sonic, Gadget, and Blue as they were transported into a demented reality crafted by Phantom Infinite himself.


	32. Phantom Delusions

**AND NOW THE STORY'S GOT SIX THOUSAND VIEWS! COME ON, THIS IS LIKE CRAZY, I'M NOT EVEN THAT GOOD OF A WRITER!**

 **ALRIGHT, SELF DEPRECATIVE HUMOR ASIDE, ENJOY THE CHAPTER.**

* * *

Never A.P. Null-Space, Phantom Hill Zone

* * *

Sonic groaned as he stood up off of something dark green in color, like almost black in color. He whipped something off of his face and when he looked at the palm of his hand he saw that the something was actually blades of very dark green colored grass. Sonic brushed his hands off as he finally got up to his feet, that's when he saw he was back in the Null-Space, but not just that, he was on a massive chunk of what looked like Green Hill Zone. But, all of the grass and leaves were the same dark green color that was almost black like, and the checkerboard ground wasn't cream and light brown colored. It was light grey instead of cream, and light-ish black instead of light brown. That same light-ish black color of the ground was also the same color as the palm tree bark, and the wood of the tikies, everything was so strange and quite that it was actually eerie and unnerving to Sonic. Sadly, the only thing he could do was run forwards and hope to find someone else, but that didn't stop him from trying one other thing. Sonic turned on his communicator and said into it "Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

" **Ah, the little blue savior is finally awake. It's about time.** "

Sonic grit his teeth "Infinite."

" **It is Phantom Infinite to you.. And yes, it is I.. What do you think of what I've done to Green Hill?** "

Sonic took a quick glance around "I hate it, tell you what. If you hand over the Phantom Ruby, I'll fix it and I'll stop complaining!"

Phantom Infinite chuckled " **How... Stupid, but I will humor your request. Come meet me, there.** "

Suddenly, Sonic could hear the sound of a Phantom Ruby pulse go off to his right. He looked over to that direction and saw what looked to be the Imperial Tower, and the area surrounding its base, floating in midair. Not just that, but there was a massive ball of smooth crystal situated in the middle of the tower, Sonic grinned slightly "Its a deal Phanty I'm on my way."

Sonic then turned off his communicator before boosting forwards. While he ran there was another Phantom Ruby pulse and suddenly, something burst out of a tiki ahead of Sonic. He skid to a halt as what looked to be a brown quilled Hedgehog, that was wearing a dark green grass kilt, and a tiki mask, stood up out of the rubble that had come off of where it had burst out of the tiki. The Tiki-Hog glared at Sonic before a spear materialized in its hands, Sonic jumped out of the way of the Tiki-Hog's jabbing spear. He then quickly zipped over to it and kicked it in its wooden mask, the Tiki-Hog fell to the ground and shattered into pieces of wood along with its spear. Sonic quickly boosted forwards again as more Tiki-Hogs appeared and tried to attack him, but he boosted right through them slowly getting closer to the floating tower. He passed through a loop that led him down into a dark colored cave, and the Tiki-Hogs that were down there had grey quills, with stone tiki masks. Even though they were different from the Tiki-Hogs above ground, Sonic still boosted right through them, once he came out of the cave his communicator turned back on and the voice of Blue said "Sonic? You there?"

The Hedgehog grinned "Blue! Finally! I was starting to get worried."

"So was I! But, please tell me your heading to that floating tower?"

Sonic nodded "Sure am, have you seen Gadget or anyone else?"

He could hear Blue sigh over the communicator "No, I haven't. But I'm keeping my eye out, see you at the tower."

Sonic nodded "You got it."

He drifted around a corner and began to run down a pathway that led to a large cliff that he might just be able to use to launch himself towards the tower. He boosted up the path, crashing through Tiki-Hogs as he went, until he finally reached the top of it. He skid to a halt before crouching down, he then quickly curled up and began to charge up a Spin Dash before letting himself go. He rocketed off of the cliff and towards the tower, but he wouldn't be able to make it there just like that, so he quickly used his boost to give him more speed, he then quickly uncurled himself before landing on the ground, right underneath Phantom Infinite. The Jackal turned around in midair and looked down at Sonic " **Heh, you've made it.** "

Sonic stood up and said "Of course I did! Who do you think I am?"

Phantom Infinite began to lower down to the ground as he said " **I thought you were smart.. Now I know that isn't true.** "

Sonic chuckled "For a guy who hasn't even been god-like for a day, you sure act like you've been that way for years."

Phantom Infinite then landed on the ground before Blue suddenly dropped from they sky, at the same time a large chunk of land floated over their heads. Blue stood up and glared at Phantom Infinite before Gadget suddenly appeared next to the twin Hedgehogs, Gadget dropped to his knees and gasped for air as Sonic quickly said to Infinite "What did you do to him?!"

Phantom Infinite stared at Gadget for a moment as Sonic helped him stand up " **I put him through the same thing Matty felt when I killed her, endless pain, and no way to scream.** "

Blue stepped forwards "Okay, you've officially crossed the line!"

Phantom Infinite rolled his eyes before lifting off of the ground slightly " **The three of you think you can defeat me, even with the true Phantom Ruby in my possession? So be it.** "

He just hovered over the ground, waiting for the other three to make the first move. Sonic clenched his fists before attempting to punch Phantom Infinite, but he quickly floated out of the way of Sonic's punch, before giving him one of his own. Sonic staggered back after getting hit, but before he could do anything else Infinite thrust his hand out and blasted Sonic back with a pulse of energy. He tumbled across the ground as Blue attempted to hit Phantom Infinite with his Spin Ball attack, but the Jackal grabbed onto Blue, forced him out of his Spin Ball, and threw him up into the air. Phantom Infinite then held his hand up and hit Blue with several bolts of red energy beams, he watched the smaller Hedgehog fall to the ground as Gadget raised his Wispon and attempted to fire at Infinite. But the Jackal quickly swiped his hand to the side and the Wispon flew right out of Gadget's hands, Phantom Infinite suddenly zipped over to Gadget and said into his ear " **Even with all you've accomplished, you still tremble like the scared child I should've killed so long ago. And now, I can smell the scent of a new fear.. The fear of death.** "

Phantom Infinite suddenly jabbed Gadget in his gut before shoving him away, and using the power of the Phantom Ruby, that shove sent Gadget tumbling across the ground. Phantom Infinite looked over the three injured heroes before sighing " **I had expected more from the three of you, truly. I did! And yet you disappoint** **me..** "

He looked over to Sonic " **I had thought gutting you in front of the Resistance would've been a challenge, but you've proved me wrong yet again.. But at what cost?..** "

He then looked over to Blue " **And the smaller, yet just as annoying, Sonic. I had yet to fight you, so I was expecting to see great things from you. But you went down easier than Sonic!** "

He then rested his eyes upon Gadget yet again " **You.. I've been fighting you just as long as I've been fighting Sonic.. Yet you are more disappointing than him, I had thought after all you accomplished you would've put up a fight, even if you still reek of fear.** "

He sighed again before lifting higher up into the air " **No matter, with the three of you soon to be dead, I have no reason to be sad.. All I've been through, I'll finally have my revenge on all of you!** "

Sonic groaned as he looked up to Phantom Infinite, he was now hovering next to the sphere of crystal. But something drew his eyes away from Infinite, and to the ball, that something was the frozen body of Knuckles. Sonic's eyes widened in shock as he realized that the entire Resistance was all frozen inside of the the crystal ball, and Eggman was at the center of it all, still stuck in the Egg Tumbler. Phantom Infinite held his hand out and aimed it at the three heroes bellow him " **Sayonara, to the three of you.** "

A sphere of red energy began to grow in the palm of his hand as Blue struggled to get up to his hands and knees. As he did he thought of a crazy idea, he wasn't even sure it was going to work, but it was either that or die, and he wasn't about to die now. He finally got to his hands and knees before closing his eyes and concentrating as hard as he could. At the same time Gadget got up to a pained crouching position and so did Sonic, when suddenly, the sphere in Phantom Infinite's hand blasted towards them. It exploded over their heads, and a massive shock wave of red energy rolled over the ground surrounding them, Phantom Infinite crossed his arms over his chest as he said " **Even in death, you are all disappointing.** "

The smoke from the explosion cleared, and revealed the three of them protected by a translucent blue shield. Phantom Infinite growled out " **What?!** "

Blue coughed before finally standing up and saying "Don't you remember? That true Phantom Ruby of yours, was in me for a long time! I've got residue energy left inside of me for days!"

Phantom Infinite uncrossed his arms and clenched his fists as he growled out " **I had wished for you three to surprise me.. But now I realize that even in this state, I make mistakes.** "

Sonic chuckled "Oh, that's not the only mistake you're gonna make, one of them being. How you didn't kill us when you got 'supreme power'!"

Phantom Infinite glared down at them as Blue closed his eyes and began to concentrate again. Sonic and Gadget walked over to the smaller Hedgehog as wind began to rush around the four of them. The air was filled with a strange, energetic feel, the three heroes could feel their spirits begin to rise, Phantom Infinite clenched his fists tighter due to a very different feeling. When suddenly, there was a bright flash of light around the heroes, and the seven mystical gemstones named the Chaos Emeralds all appeared around Sonic, Gadget, and Blue. Phantom Infinite was practically digging his own claws into his palms as the Emeralds began to spin around the three of them slowly getting faster as they did. Sonic slammed his fist into his open palm before saying "Get ready Phanty. You're about to get a beat down, Super Sonic style!"

The spinning got faster and faster, the Emeralds turning bright white as they did. When suddenly there was a bright flash of yellow light that destroyed the shield that was protecting them before. Phantom Infinite shielded his eyes with his hand before the light died down and he looked at the three heroes, only to see Super Sonic, and Super Blue, hovering slightly off of the ground. Not only that, but Gadget was also floating, only he hadn't gone super, instead, he was surrounded by the phenomenon known as a Super Shield. Something that only occurs when one is hit by massive amounts of Chaos Energy, and can't go super, Phantom Infinite then yelled out " **You think you can stop me?! All you've done is stain yourselves yellow! I am still the most powerful being in all of reality! I still posses the true Phantom Ruby! I am still GOD!** "

He let out a brightly colored Phantom Ruby pulse that forced the three super heroes to shield their eyes. And once they un-shielded them, they saw that they were floating in midair. There weren't any chunks of floating ground anywhere, there wasn't even Phantom Infinite, Super Sonic was about to say something when suddenly. A massive creature lifted up into the air, the other three backed away from it and Super-Shielded Gadget saw that the monster looked like the creatures Infinite had created back in Metropolis, except its body was almost as big as Perfect Chaos's body, and it had one single, purple colored, eye stretching from both sides of its head, and on the bottom of its head there was a massive mouth filled with jagged teeth. On the back of its head there were several long, freely flowing, white dreadlocks, also, its arms looked mush larger, and stronger too, the same went for its hands, who's fingers looked to now posses claws. Super Sonic glared up at the massive monster before saying "What is that thing?"

Super Blue shrugged "Let's just call it the Phantom Monster and move on!"

The Phantom Monster then let out a roar as the sound of a Phantom Ruby pulse ringed in their ears. At the same time, a large crystal came out of the Phantom Monster's chest making its true identity even clearer then before. Infinite had turned himself into that monster, and now the three super heroes had to deal with it, suddenly, the Phantom Monster's single eye began to glow bright purple. When suddenly, a large laser fired out of it, Super Sonic and Super Blue flew away from it, while Super-Shielded Gadget ducked underneath it. Super Sonic flew over to the side of its head before boosting into it, the Phantom Monster's head lurched to the side as Super Blue charged up a midair Spin Dash, he rocketed forwards and hit the bottom of its chin which caused its head to lurch up into the air, and it also stopped it from firing its laser.

Super-Shielded Gadget raised up his Wispon and accidentally pulled its trigger, and that caused a massive blast of fire to erupt from it. Much more than normal, the fire actually was able to hit the Phantom Monster's body, and it roared out in pain, before swinging its right arm at Gadget. He quickly flew up into the air and was just barely able to dodge the side of the monster's finger, at the same time, Super Sonic flew around the Phantom Monster's head distracting it. So Super Blue could attack it once more, the small yellow Hedgehog charged up a midair Spin Dash and hit the side of the monster's head again, which caused it to roar out in pain some more. Super-Shielded Gadget flew around the Phantom Monster, firing off his empowered Wispon as he did, before the monster suddenly roared out again, it opened its mouth wide and a sphere of dark purple energy began to grow inside of its jaw. Super Sonic attempted to distract it again, but it had learned its lesson from before, not even Super Blue could draw its attention away from the sphere, and of course, neither could Super-Shielded Gadget. The Phantom Monster then roared again, as it fired the sphere of dark purple energy towards Super-Shielded Gadget and Super Blue, who had flown close to the Wolf.

Super Sonic yelled out "Look out!"

Right before the sphere exploded over head, a large shock wave of black energy hit the two of them and they crashed into the side of a chunk of ground that had materialized thanks to the Phantom Ruby. Super Sonic was about to fly over to his friends, when the Phantom Monster suddenly swiped its hand at him, he flew out of its way before the Phantom Monster fired off another laser. Super Sonic dodged that as well, before it stopped firing the laser and charged up another sphere of dark purple energy. Super Sonic attempted to use that opportunity to hit the Phantom Monster, but that didn't work much like last time, the monster then fired out the sphere and Super Sonic was blasted away and towards his friends. He crashed right into the chunk of ground and was actually forcefully burrowed into it, a second later and Super Sonic came out of the top of it before saying "We can't go one at a time, we have to work together. One of us has to distract it while the other two attack it."

Super-Shielded Gadget nodded as he lifted up to Super Sonic's eye level "Yeah, I'll distract it first. You and Blue hit him with all you've got."

The two super Hedgehogs nodded before they all flew back towards the Phantom Monster. Super-Shielded Gadget fired off his Wispon again as Super Sonic and Blue flew over to the left side of the monster, Super-Shielded Gadget dodged any incoming attacks as Super Sonic and Blue charged up their attacks. Super Blue rocketed forwards with a midair Spin Dash, while Super Sonic boosted forwards, they both hit the side of the Phantom Monster's head at relatively the same time. Meanwhile, Super-Shielded Gadget flew over to the two super Hedgehogs, but as he did Blue began to fly towards the front of the Phantom Monster's head, and as he passed by Gadget he said "I'll distract him this time!"

Gadget nodded before Super Sonic led him towards the back of the Phantom Monster's head. It swiped its hand at Super Blue while Super Sonic laid out a plan for him and Gadget. The monster fired off another laser, and Blue was able to dodge it as the other two finished their creating their plan, Super-Shielded Gadget flew towards the back of the monster's head, firing his Wispon as he did, he burned off the Phantom Monster's dreadlocks allowing Super Sonic a clear shot. He charged up a Homing Attack, and rocketed forwards while Super-Shielded Gadget flew over to Super Blue's side. Super Sonic collided with the back of the Phantom Monster's head and made it lurch forwards due to the impact, at the same time he yelled over to his friends "I got this turn!"

Super Blue and Super-Shielded Gadget both nodded before they began to fly forwards. At the same time the Phantom Monster's head returned to its normal position, it then craned around and glared at Super Sonic who simply crossed his arms over his chest and flew high up into the air, drawing the monster's attention as he did. Super Blue and Super-Shielded Gadget both flew over to the side of the Phantom Monster's head before Super Blue charged up a midair Spin Dash. Right as he rocketed forwards, Super-Shielded Gadget fired off his grappling hook and Wire Attacked the side of the Phantom Monster's head along side Super Blue. Its head lurched to the side and Super Sonic just couldn't help himself, so he quickly Homing Attacked the top of the Phantom Infinite's head. Super Sonic then flew over to his friends and said to them "Alright guys, I think we've given Phanty a run for his money. Let's finish this!"

The other two nodded before they all flew towards the monster again. They zipped around its head like gnats, when suddenly, Super Blue midair Spin Dashed into the side of its head, Super-Shielded Gadget fired off his Wispon at the other side of its head, and Super Sonic flew towards the enlarged Phantom Ruby. He charged up a Homing Attack, before rocketing forwards and crashing right through the ruby, the Phantom Monster fell apart into thousands of red cubes. The chunks of floating ground from before returned, and so did the Imperial Tower, at the same time Phantom Infinite groaned as he reappeared where the brain of the Phantom Monster would be. The three super heroes flew up to Phantom Infinite before Super Sonic said "Ready to give up?"

Phantom Infinite clenched his fists " **Never! I shall never submit to you three.** "

Super Sonic shrugged "Alright, let the butt kicking continue!"

Super Blue midair Spin Dashed into Phantom Infinite, sending him flying towards Super-Shielded Gadget, who fired his Wispon at him blasting him towards Super Sonic. And once Phantom Infinite was close enough, he spun around and just before kicking him away, he said to him "Sayonara Phantom Infinite!"

He then kicked Infinite right in his chest, where the true Phantom Ruby was locked into place, and sent him rocketing towards the Imperial Tower, and the large crystal ball. He crashed into and through the ball, and there was a bright flash of light as the Null-Space fell apart around the three super heroes.

* * *

3:24 A.M. West Side Island, Eggman's Former Minefield, Outside the Imperial Tower.

* * *

Super Sonic, Blue, and Gadget, all landed on the ground before their Super Forms disappeared and they were returned to normal. At the same time, red sparks fell from the sky as if they were snow, and the Resistance all reappeared on the ground. Knuckles picked himself up off of the ground and was able to say "Not sure what just happened, but, I think we just won!"

Everyone let out cries of slight confusion, and excitement as Knuckles said "I knew we'd do it!"

The Resistance all agreed with Knuckles, and some helped others up off of the ground as Knuckles walked over to the three heroes. He then said to them "What did happen?"

Sonic grinned "Its a long story, but. Let's just say that Phantom Infinite got his butt handed to him, cooked Super Sonic style."

Knuckles also grinned "I should've known."

At the same time, they suddenly heard a strange and distorted voice say " **N- _N_ O! I a _m n_ ot d _efe_ ate _d_ , not _ye_ t! I _am not w_ ea _k_ , _I still_ p _o_ ss _e_ s the Ph _anto_ m R _ub_ y!**"

Everyone looked over to the not-so-Phantom-anymore Infinite, a hand placed over his chest on top of the true Phantom Ruby. His mask was returning to normal and the mouth had long since disappeared. Blue put his hands on his hips "I don't know, you look pretty weakened."

Infinite clenched his fist " **No! _I a_ m n _o_ t weakened! _N_ o _t_ ****y** _e_ t! I am still god-like!"

Gadget stepped forwards "Give up Infinite, its over."

The Jackal gritted his teeth before swiping his hand off of his chest as he yelled out "NO!"

Revealing that the true Phantom Ruby had a large crack down the middle of it. Sonic winced slightly "Alright, you may be evil but I don't want you to be injured more than needs be. Come on, give up and we'll give you a little less harsh prison sentence."

Infinite suddenly lunged at Sonic, who jumped out of his way and kicked him in the back of his head. He fell to the ground and groaned slightly as he tried to pick himself back up, but he wasn't strong enough to do so. He coughed before forcing himself to get onto his knees, he attempted to use the Phantom Ruby to float off of the ground but the ruby wasn't strong enough as well. He slumped forwards silently before a small chuckle slipped out of his lips, he continued to chuckle before it turned to a laugh, which grew louder and louder, until he looked up into the sky and began to let out maniacally cackle. Everyone backed away from Infinite as he cackled, when suddenly the cracked Phantom Ruby began to glow and hum, right before Infinite suddenly disappeared. But the left side of the ruby fell to the ground, not being taken with Infinite for some reason, Blue crouched down and picked the chunk of ruby up as the clouds above them slowly began to dissipate. Blue inspected the chunk of Phantom Ruby in his hands before saying "Hey Tails! You think I can use this thing to send myself home?"

Tails ran over to Blue as he said "I guess, it just depends on if you can actually use it still or not."

Blue held the Phantom Ruby up as Tails finally reached him. Blue closed his eyes and began to concentrate on making it work, then suddenly, there was the sound of a Phantom Ruby pulse and a chili dog appeared in Sonic's hands "Whoa! Yep, it still works."

Blue grinned as he lowered his hands and stuck the ruby under his arm "Looks like I can work it, so I can go home."

Tails nodded "Then, I guess this is good bye. Get home safely Blue, and thanks for everything."

Blue smiled and nodded before giving Tails a thumbs up. He then turned around and held out the Phantom Ruby, he closed his eyes and began to concentrate again, the ruby began to glow, it began to hum, energy arched off of the area where it had been cracked in half. Suddenly, there was a Phantom Ruby pulse and a crimson purple portal appeared in front of Blue, it crackled with like electrical energy sounds. But once the portal appeared, the half of the Phantom Ruby Blue was holding onto exploded and shattered into several pieces, Blue brushed his hands off before turning around and staring at his new-found inter-dimensional friends. Tails held his hand out and Blue shook it while Sonic and Gadget gave him a thumbs up, Blue let go of Tails' hand and gave him, Sonic, and Gadget, fist bumps before spinning around and running into the portal, said portal closed behind him once he ran right through it. Tails sighed slightly as he whipped a single tear off of his eye, Sonic then walked over to his friend and put his hand on Tails' shoulder "Don't worry buddy, you still got me."

Tails nodded "I know, but, I'm just now realizing... We actually did it, we defeated Eggman."

Sonic smiled before also nodding, he then turned around and faced the rest of the Resistance "Alright guys! It's time we cleaned up the mess Eggman left this world in, and I'm not talking about those illusions he dreamed up for us! We need to fix the world we all live in."

Tails grinned "True dat!"

Gadget sighed as he shook his head due to what Tails had said. Sonic chuckled slightly before saying "C'mon, let's go!"

The Resistance all nodded in agreement before they all began to walk out of the minefield around the Imperial Tower, towards one of the last remaining, and now landed, Resistance ships so it could fly them back to South Island so they could start the planet wide recovery by fixing up Gama Base.


	33. Light At the End Of the Tunnel Of Hope

5:25 A.M. South Island, Green Hill City, Gama Base.

* * *

It took the Resistance quite awhile for them to get the base into working order, now, people were in the Briefing Room idling chatting while waiting for heavy machinery to help lift various chunks of concrete that not even Knuckles could lift. Off in the corner of the room, Tails and Silver began to talk to each other when Silver said to Tails "Do you think Eggman's gonna attack again?"

Tails sighed and nodded "Probably."

Silver hopped up onto a crate and sat down on it before saying "Really? I mean sure, he's crazy but, he's lost a lot of robots thanks to us."

Tails chuckles slightly "Yeah, although his next attack isn't going to be as big as his first conquest. Its probably just going to be him stuffing woodland creatures into robots, because he can't create hundreds of energy cores now that we've cut him off from that mine around the Imperial Tower."

Silver nodded while Gadget watched the recently reactivated monitor that sat on the back wall of the room, it had reconnected to the Resistance Network after being turned back on, and it now showed a map of the world that itself showed that Eggman no longer had any territory on the planet. At the same time, Knuckles walked into the room, having taken off his tribal gear awhile ago, and said "Finally, an end to this endless battle. Everyone can go home and relax. There's no need for the Resistance."

Silver jumped off of the box he was sitting on before saying "Hold on, there's still a lot we need to do. We're just getting started."

Knuckles nodded as Silver walked over to the broken in half grey table that sat in the middle of the room. Knuckles then said "While we aren't fighting against an oppressive empire anymore. Someone's gotta make sure everyone gets back up onto their feet properly, someone's gotta make sure G.U.N. is brought back properly, someone's gotta clean up Eggman's mess! So, I guess the Resistance is going from.. Well.. A Resistance, to a cleanup crew."

Amy then said "Which means we need to have a new name!"

Knuckles chuckled before continuing "We sure do... I got it! How about the Eggman Recovery Effort, or the ERF?"

The former Resistance soldiers all nodded in agreement, when Gadget took in a shaky breath, before saying to Knuckles "Uh.. I'm actually not going to be around much longer."

Knuckles turned to face Gadget "You're leaving us?"

Gadget nodded "Yeah... I've got some people to check up on now that the wars over."

Knuckles sighed "Well, okay. I'm not gonna stop you."

Vector then said "Man, the first time I saw you cowering in front of Egg Pawns and stumbling into the base. I had no idea you could pull this thing together and see it to the end."

As he walked over to Gadget, he patted the Wolf's back before adding "I've changed my mind about you."

Knuckles nodded "I new you'd come through Gadget."

Rouge walked over to the other three, she pushed Knuckles to the side before saying "You did good out there. It's not like you just waited till the last minute to come in and act all cool saving the day."

She playfully glared over her shoulder to Omega as the robot raised its arms up and cocked them, two empty grenade shells came out of them and pinged as they rolled across the ground. While Shadow watched, he merely humphed slightly, Tails then said "Our battle is done and our resistance has come to a conclusion, but as Knuckles said, someone's gotta keep the world from unraveling again so, along with the fact we'll be friends forever, we'll be seeing each other again real soon."

The former Resistance members all nodded in agreement as Gadget walked out of the room, and out of the base. He walked out to the back exit of the building, where he saw Sonic standing there staring at the slowly rising sun, Sonic could hear Gadget's foot steps so he turned to him and said "Hey, you're taking off too?"

Gadget nodded and Sonic continued "I was thinking the same thing."

Sonic looked back over to the rising sun as Gadget stood next to him, Sonic then said "You gonna keep moving forward? No matter what, yeah?"

Gadget chuckled before nodding and saying "Sure will Sonic, I'll keep on running."

Sonic chuckled slightly before saying "Heh, you and I aren't so different."

Gadget nodded before Sonic said "See ya later Dustin!"

They fist bumped each other Sonic turned around and began to run down the still damaged streets of the city. As he did, Gadget waved to Sonic who looked over his shoulder and gave Gadget a thumbs up, he then looked forwards and began to run faster. Gadget readjusted his left hand's glove as he looked over to the rising sun, he still had something to do, something he didn't even have to do, but something he felt he had to do. He ran forwards and jumped off of a concrete cliff that looked over a park, he then used his grappling hook to swing himself down to the ground of the park bellow. Once he landed, he looked at the ship that had flown the Resistance from West Side, to South Island, standing in front of the ship was the Special Forces and Rotor. He walked over to the SF and Sally looked over to him before saying "You sure about this?"

Gadget nodded "I owe it to her parents to do this."

Sally nodded slightly as she said "I know.. It's just that, Newt is still very capable of doing this herself."

Gadget stopped in front of them before saying "She needs time to calm down after what we've been through. I don't need to calm down, not yet, this is my last mission."

Sally sighed "Alright."

Suddenly, Rotor yelled out "Ah ha! Finally!"

Gadget and Sally looked over to Rotor, and the red Wolf said "What? What is it?"

Rotor grinned as he placed a laptop down "I've finally finished this!"

He then held up a hand held device, that had a blue ring like the bracelets on Sally's wrists strapped to the top of it. Gadget raised an eyebrow in slight confusion "What- What is it?"

Rotor raised his right finger up into the air "It can do this!"

He then brought it down on top of a button on the device, and the ring began to glow, before Nicole suddenly appeared in front of Rotor. Everyone backed away from Nicole in shock, and Sally said "Wh- R- Rotor! How'd you?"

The Walrus smiled "Using the design of your hard light bracelets, and bits and pieces left over from Eggman's Phantom Ruby, I've constructed a device that can create a hard light-illusion that gives Nicole a semi-physical form again!"

Sally smiled brightly before hesitantly trying to hug Nicole, which surprisingly worked. Sally began to cry slightly as she said "Thank you Rotor."

The Walrus nodded "You got it.. Alright, we ready to go now?"

Gadget nodded as Sally and Nicole stepped away from each other. Rotor pressed a button on the side of the ship and a door slid open, they all climbed into the ship and Sally walked into the bridge, she turned on the engines and it lifted up into the air. Gadget sat down on a seat in the back of the ship and silently sat there for a few minutes when Bunnie suddenly sat down next to him. Gadget looked over to the still Roboticized Rabbit as she said "So, ah know why you're doing this. But what makes you think this is your duty?"

Gadget sighed before answering "Matty reminded me of my sister, Fuchsia."

Bunnie nodded before hesitantly saying "I- Is she alright?"

Gadget nodded "She should be, my parents are pretty tough."

Bunnie's metal lips smiled before she rubbed his back and stood up to leave him alone. Gadget would sit alone in the back of the ship for the next thirty minutes or so before the ship finally reached its destination.

* * *

5:55 A.M. Ouip, Spagonia, Scotol Regions, Spagonia City, College District.

* * *

The Resistance ship landed in front of the famous College of Spagonia's front gates, right behind the damaged statue of King Mathew the III. The ship's doors slid open and Gadget, Rotor, Nicole, and Sally walked out of the ship, sitting in the large courtyard of the college there was a large tent that had a massive gathering of people standing in, and in front of, it. Those people looked like they hadn't washed themselves in moths, years even, their clothes had holes in them, their hair or fur in certain cases were dirty and tangled, and they all looked tired, hungry, and weak. Gadget took in a deep breath to try and calm his nerves when Rotor said "You want us to come with you?"

Gadget looked over to him "No, I need to do this alone."

Rotor nodded "Alright, then in that case, I'll take Nicole and Sally to find the Spagonian Resistance's computer systems so we can find your family."

Gadget smiled "Thanks Rotor."

He nodded before him, and the others, walked away from Gadget. The red Wolf took in a deep breath again before walking forwards, he carefully made his way through the crowd and into the tent trying hard not to shove his way through. While making his way into the tent he saw why there was such a large crowd, everyone was trying to get over to a large soup kitchen like area in the side of the tent. Gadget continued to slowly make his way through the crowd as carefully as possible, the people around him whispered quietly as he made his way through, they asked relatively the same question "Who's that?" and "What is he doing here?" ultimately, Gadget ignored their words and continued to make his way towards that soup kitchen area. As he slowly got closer to it, he heard the sounds of pots and pans clanging, utensils scrapping, and people yelling out orders. He every so often got to peek over the heads of the people in front of him, and he saw two white Dogs in the front of the soup kitchen area, scrambling back and forth grabbing things, putting them on plates, and handing the to people. Gadget eventually managed to make his way to the front of the crowd and the smell of food hit him harder than before, he had to force himself to not drool on the spot because of that.

He walked over to the front-counter-thing of the soup kitchen area and one of the two Dogs, who was apparently a woman, looked over to him and said "Be with you in just a minute!"

She quickly ran over to the other end of the counter and started to do something over there. How was he going to talk to her about something very personal? Could he just walk behind the counter and get their attention? If he did, would he be detained or something? Gadget sighed before finally coming to the conclusion that, because he was apart of the main Resistance, he could go behind the counter. Hopefully. He walked back there and almost immediately some one said to him "What are you doing back here?"

Gadget looked over to the person and saw that it was the other white Dog, a man, Gadget hesitantly said "M- My name is Dustin Filbert Wolf, I'm from Knuckles' Resistance. My code name is Agent Gadget, and I have some news to deliver to the parents of Matty."

The man's eyes widened "I- I'm her father, g- give me a second I'll go get my wife."

He quickly ran over to the Dog lady from before as Gadget tried his hardest to calm his nerves down. A moment later and the Dog man come over to Gadget again, as he did the Dog lady yelled into the kitchen behind the counter "Mighty! Ray! Take over the front counter for a few minutes!"

The Dog man then reached Gadget and he began to lead the Wolf towards a tent hallway in the back of the area they were in. The Dog lady joined with the Gadget and the man before they began to walk down the tent hall and into a room with a couch, a table, some book shelves, and a radio device sitting on the table. The two Dogs sat down on the couch and Gadget awkwardly stood in front of the couch and the table, before the man said "Uh.. I guess we should introduce ourselves."

The lady nodded before she said "My name's Kendra Floyd, and he's Vincent Floyd."

Vincent waved slightly before Gadget took in a deep breath, and said "As I've already told Mr. Floyd, I come from Knuckles' Resistance. I'm Agent Gadget, my real name's Dustin Filbert Wolf, and I'm here to give you two s- some... News."

Kendra shifted slightly on the couch before placing her hands down on her lap, and on top of her cooking apron "Wh- What kind of news?"

Gadget closed his eyes and wished he could just get this over with quick and easy, while still being careful and nice, he opened his eyes again before saying "During our Resistance's attempted raid on Eggman's former capital city Infinite, the monster that had supposedly defeated Sonic, used an object named the Phantom Ruby to create illusions that everyone experienced as real things. A- After Knuckles gave the command to retreat me, Matty, and Newt met together on a highway that would lead us out of the city. B- But, Infinite showed up.. H- He taunted me, and that made Matty try and attack Infinite.. That- That only caused Infinite to become angry, he blocked me and Newt off from him and Matty, then- Th- Then..."

Gadget brought a hand up and whipped some tears out from under his eye, he then took of his glasses and whipped off some of the tear water that had some how gotten on it, before finally forcing himself to say it "Infinite... Killed.. Matty."

Vincent and Kendra both froze on the couch, their eyes opened wide in complete shock. Gadget bit his bottom lip as he realized he might've been to blunt, or something, in his words. That's when Vincent finally said "O- Oh.. I don't.. I- Is.."

Gadget sighed "I'm sorry... I- I was the reason she died, Infinite egged her on all because of the fact I had already met him before the raid... I shouldn't have even told you this news so soon after Eggman's defeat as well.. I'm-"

Vincent suddenly got up and walked over to Gadget, he placed a hand on his shoulder and said to him "I may not know much about you yet, but I know for a fact that it wasn't your fault... I don't blame you, we don't blame you, we don't blame Knuckles either. We only blame the monster that killed her, Infinite, and his master, Eggman."

Gadget nodded slightly "T- Thank you."

Vincent gave Gadget a small smile before saying "You were friends with Matty. That much I can tell, which means you're family to us. If you ever need to, you can stop by our house and have a home made meal whenever you want."

Gadget smiled weakly "Thank you, again."

Vincent nodded before Gadget said "I should be going now."

He then stepped back from Vincent and gave a little wave goodbye to Kendra, who was silently sitting on the couch trying to keep herself calm and composed for Gadget, he then walked down the tent hall. Out of the tent, and back over to the ship, once there Rotor looked over to him and said "Gadget! We found where your family is!"

Gadget smiled "Thanks Rotor, let's go."

He nodded before they both got aboard the ship, and once the door slid closed, the ship took off again. It flew for a few minutes before coming to a small island Gadget knew from pictures in his old house back in Green Hill City. On the island there was a blue roofed, white walled, house that had a shed behind it, a garden next to it, and sitting on the back of the island, there was a still very functional light house that had blue and white strips on it. The ship landed at the edge of the small island and Gadget walked off of it, this was the very island his grandfather grew up on, Gadget took in a deep breath enjoying the smell of calm saltwater before he began to walk towards the house. While he walked the ship began to take off again, he turned around and waved goodbye to it before turning back around and being tackled to the ground. He grunted out "Fuchsia! What was that for?!"

His sister hugged him tightly before yelling out "Dustin! Iwassoworriedwherewereyouareyoualrightdidanyonehurtyouareyouhungry?!"

Her words all jumbled together into one long sentence due to her emotions getting the better of her, Gadget smiled before saying "I'm fine, I'm fine. I'll tell you what happened soon I promise!"

He was able to push her off of him before standing up again, he then heard the sound of some one yelling out his name. He looked over to the house and saw his brothers, Corvin and Danny, running towards him. Danny rammed into Gadget and quickly pulled him into a hug while Corvin stopped next to the two of them and smiled at Gadget. The red Wolf finally pried himself out of his almost identical brother's grasp before saying "You're all alright.. Thank goodness."

Corvin nodded "Sure are, where were you?"

Gadget sighed "Like I already told Fuchsia, I'll explain everything later. Right now, I need a good hardy meal in my stomach asap."

Danny smiled "Got it, I'll go tell mom and dad!"

He then spun around and began to run towards the house while Corvin and Fuchsia walked along side Gadget as he followed after Danny. A few minutes later and the smell of freshly cooked steak and potatoes would be flowing out of the house's windows, Gadget was happy to be home, it was good to see his family again, he was also pretty tired now that he had a full stomach but he chose to focus on the family stuff instead, now he couldn't wait for his life to calm down again after all he's been through.

* * *

12:45 P.M. Dimension 1-5-1-7, Astrla Island, Never Lake.

* * *

Tails and Knuckles both watched as the Little Planet disappeared into thin air, blue sparkles rained down from the spot it once was and down to the ground below. But, what they didn't see was Sonic coming back down onto the ground with them, after he just up and disappeared when the Phantom Ruby went crazy back in the Titanic Monarch they hadn't seen him since. That's when suddenly, they heard what sounded like a distorted version of the Phantom Ruby's pulse behind them, Knuckles and Tails both spun around to see a portal open up behind him. And Sonic ran right out of that portal just before it closed behind him, Sonic skid to a halt and Tails yelled out "Sonic!"

He began to run over to his friend as Sonic said "Tails! Buddy did I miss you."

Tails jumped into Sonic's arms and they pulled each other into a hug before Knuckles said "Where have you been?"

Sonic set Tails down and let go of him before saying "Long story, trust my I'll explain, but boy am I tired. So, Tails, how's about we go find some place to eat.. And you can come to Knux."

The Echidna crossed his arms over his chest and said "How thoughtful of you Sonic.. But I'll pass, gotta protect the Master Emerald, don't have time to chit chat."

Sonic shrugged "Suit yourself, come on buddy let's go."

Tails nodded before the two of them began to walk away from Knuckles, who just stood there. After a minute or so, Sonic looked over his shoulder and said "You don't know how to find your island again, don't you?"

Knuckles sighed "Yeah.. I don't know how."

Sonic chuckled "Alright come on, there's bound to be some one in a nearby town who saw your island floating by."

Knuckles ran over to Sonic and Tails before saying "I'm not going to thank you for this."

Sonic looked over to the Echidna "Oh I know, you never thanked me for saving your island the first tie around either."

Knuckles rolled his eyes "Wouldn't have needed saving if you hadn't crashed the Death Egg on top of my island in the first place."

Sonic grinned before stepping forwards and saying "Catch ya' there, chuckle-head!"

He then sped forwards and Tails yelled out "Wait for me!"

Before using his twin tails to sped after Sonic, Knuckles raised his fist up and shook it at Sonic "Hey! Don't call me that!"

He then began to chase after Sonic as they all made their way towards the nearest town, or city, which ever was closer.

* * *

6:03 A.M. Dimension 1-1-7-1-7, Over the Planet, the Remains Of the Egg Station.

* * *

"Pooooooooooweeer s- supply reconnected."

One of the most intact chunks of the Egg Station's lights flickered to life, its computer screens also flickered on, as an A.I. voice said "Gravity reengaged."

Everything little bit and piece that was floating around in the chunk fell to the ground before that voice said "Engaging anti-vacumization measures."

A blue energy field appeared around the chunk and breath able air flooded back into the chunk, before Cubot turned around and looked at Orbot "Alright! Everything's back up and running!"

Orbot sighed "Finally, it took forever to get the power back on I was worried it'd take just as long to turn everything else back on."

It then moved over to a computer and used it to turn something on, and the A.I. voice announced "Activating Warp Ring."

A golden ring was lowered from the ceiling and a portal slowly opened up in it, said portal led to the Null-Space, and suddenly, the Egg Tumbler shot out of the portal and skid across the room and crashed into a wall in front of the ring. The docked Egg Mobile's glass cover slid open and Eggman climbed out of it, coughing slightly as he did, he then stumbled out of the damaged mech before grumbling to himself as he walked over to his two robotic assistants. Orbot turned to face its master before saying "Did you have a nice time in the Null-Space sir?"

Eggman grumbled "Oh, shut up."

He then stopped in the middle of the room and popped his back as best he could before looking around the room. He scowled at his surroundings before saying "It was all right in my hand, the entire world was my putty, and now I'm stuck here in this heap of floating scrap!"

Cubot shrugged "I dunno, it could be worse. We could've been captured by the Resistance."

Eggman grumbled again "Rrrrgggh! The Resistance.. I should've crushed them as soon as Sonic joined their ranks."

Orbot nodded "Yes, yes you should've."

Eggman scowled at the robot "I said shut up!"

He then kicked the robot which caused his back to snap crackle and pop, which also caused him to wince in pain. He then sighed "No... It was my fault the Resistance gained so much power, I became to aggregate and thought that I was merely toying with them. But instead, I was worried I'd become bored with my new found empire so I let them live."

He then looked over to his right and saw one of the last remaining cameras Eggman's network was linked to, said camera showed the remains of Gama Base, which was being fixed by the Resistance at that very moment. Eggman clenched his fists before saying "Sonic... You may think that you've defeated me once and for all. But that is not the case! I will return! I will conquer the world again, and when that time comes! I'll kill you before you get the chance to fight against me, I'll kill your friends too! Mwa-hahaha!"

Cubot then suddenly said "Wow, really? I kinda thought that because you failed so badly this time you'd be discouraged by to not achieve that goal."

Eggman glared down at Cubot before saying "No! If anything, I've become even more motivated to achieve that goal! I already know I can do it! I just need the time to build back up.. That's right, mark my words Sonic, I will attack again... But my next true attack won't be out of conquest, it'll be out of necessity. I must regain the resources necessary to rebuild my army."

Orbot sighed "Alright, where do you want to attack next?"

Eggman glanced over his shoulder and said "Not today.. I must first make sure that everyone thinks that I have disappeared before resurfacing again."

Orbot nodded "Alright then, but are we just going to hide out here?"

"Does it look like we have anywhere else to go?!"

Eggman then shoved past Orbot and walked over to the Egg Tumbler so he could try and fix it, just so he could occupy his mind until he attacks again. But that attack won't be big, it won't be devastating, or even that intimidating, and down at the surface of the planet Sonic and the Resistance finally get to relax peacefully, well not for Sonic, he still running around the world helping whoever needs it, and surprisingly not that many people need that much help despite the state of the world. But he didn't care, he was just glade that he could finally get to run where ever he wants to again, everything's finally back to normal just the way it liked it.

 **THE END.**

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 **Alright, Sonic: Resistance is finally over, some of you may be sad about it. But just realize, that this means I'll get to do a different story. Speaking of a different stories, if any of you are interested in my plans for my next story keep on reading, if not you can go.**

 **Okay, if you're still here, I should have a poll up on my profile that asks what my next Sonic story should be, but that doesn't mean I'll do that as the actual next story. Me real next story's gonna be a sequel to one of my previous stories named NitW: Beyond the Springs, which itself is a sequel to Lost in the Upside Down, which is also a prequel to the actual Night in the Woods game, and then there's Half A Night at Freddy's, which takes place during NitW: BtS.. Alright so maybe I've made things a little complicated, but anyways. Before I do that BtS sequel I'm gonna remaster those previously mentioned stories to fit with my current style of writing.**

 **Alright, that's all, you can go now and I hope to see all of you again at a different story. But until then, and have a good day.**


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